Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Purchases Shares of 27,659 F5, Inc. $FFIV

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 27,659 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,939,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 1.5% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,172,614 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $933,764,000 after buying an additional 48,057 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,741,117 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $511,016,000 after purchasing an additional 64,420 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of F5 by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,615,555 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $475,490,000 after purchasing an additional 87,923 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its stake in F5 by 6.4% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 839,561 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $271,338,000 after acquiring an additional 50,278 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $207,492,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks highlights F5’s strong earnings-surprise history and says the company currently has the factors that make another earnings-beat likely, which can support the stock near-term. Will F5 (FFIV) Beat Estimates Again in Its Next Earnings Report?
• Neutral Sentiment: Multiple investor-rights firms issued deadlines/reminders for lead-plaintiff motions (common after large moves); these notices increase filings activity but are procedural and don’t by themselves change fundamentals. FFIV Stockholders Who Lost Money Investing in F5, Inc. Should Contact Robbins LLP for Information About Their Rights
• Negative Sentiment: Hagens Berman reports a securities class action alleging F5’s October disclosures about a material cybersecurity incident and the incident’s adverse impact on expected 2026 revenue; litigation risk and potential damages could pressure the stock and investor sentiment. F5, Inc. (FFIV) Cybersecurity Incident-Related Securities Class Action Pending As Adverse Financial Impact Clarified – Hagens Berman
• Negative Sentiment: Additional firms (Kahn Swick, Bronstein Gewirtz, Rosen, RGRD, etc.) have filed or publicized suits/alerts referencing the breach and class period; Kahn Swick notes an earlier ~24% stock decline tied to the breach—these coordinated filings keep legal headlines in the news cycle and may add volatility. F5, Inc. Securities Fraud Class Action Result of Data Breach and 24% Stock Decline – Kahn Swick & Foti

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $261.55 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.19 billion, a PE ratio of 22.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.14 and a beta of 0.98. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $223.76 and a 52-week high of $346.00. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $253.63 and a 200 day moving average of $287.93.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.43. The firm had revenue of $810.09 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $794.06 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.76% and a net margin of 22.42%.The company’s revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.67 earnings per share. F5 has set its FY 2026 guidance at 14.500-15.500 EPS and its Q1 2026 guidance at 3.350-3.850 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on FFIV. Zacks Research upgraded F5 from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of F5 from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $277.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of F5 from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $315.00 to $325.00 in a report on Monday, January 5th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of F5 from $336.00 to $296.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.78.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $236.99, for a total value of $308,087.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 150,323 shares in the company, valued at $35,625,047.77. The trade was a 0.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,110 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total transaction of $294,150.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 12,513 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,315,945. The trade was a 8.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 32,705 shares of company stock valued at $8,152,655. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

About F5

F5 Inc (NASDAQ:FFIV) specializes in application services and delivery networking, helping organizations ensure the availability, performance and security of their applications. The company’s core offerings include advanced load balancing, traffic management and application security solutions designed to optimize user experiences and protect against threats such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and web application exploits.

At the heart of F5’s product portfolio is the BIG-IP platform, which provides a suite of software modules for local and global traffic management, secure web application firewalling and DNS service delivery.