Truist Financial Corp Decreases Stock Holdings in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Truist Financial Corp reduced its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 41.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,067 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 15,154 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in F5 were worth $5,378,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,357,293 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,878,023,000 after purchasing an additional 114,533 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 1.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,226,326 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,042,716,000 after purchasing an additional 53,712 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 1.2% in the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,634,361 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $528,209,000 after purchasing an additional 18,806 shares during the period. UBS Group AG boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 141.2% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,023,869 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $261,353,000 after purchasing an additional 599,384 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 2.5% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,017,715 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $328,915,000 after purchasing an additional 25,052 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting F5

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5’s latest quarter beat expectations, with revenue and EPS coming in above estimates and management raising guidance for the next quarter and full year. That supports the view that growth and profitability remain intact. F5 (FFIV) Reports Q2 Earnings
• Positive Sentiment: FFIV is trading close to its 52-week high and well above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, signaling strong momentum that may be drawing in traders and institutions. MarketBeat FFIV Quote
• Neutral Sentiment: Several insider sales were disclosed, including transactions by the CEO and an EVP, but at least some were made under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans, which makes the signal less clear-cut for investors. CEO Form 4 (SEC)
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple insider sales across senior executives, including the CEO, CFO, and EVPs, may create some caution around the stock, even if the trades were largely pre-scheduled. F5 Insider Sells $322,330.00

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on FFIV shares. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $283.00 to $292.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $345.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of F5 from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $316.44.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV stock opened at $354.03 on Monday. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $223.76 and a fifty-two week high of $354.52. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $297.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $274.01. The stock has a market cap of $19.97 billion, a PE ratio of 29.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.19 and a beta of 1.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.47 by $0.43. F5 had a net margin of 21.96% and a return on equity of 21.50%. The business had revenue of $811.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $783.82 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.42 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.910-4.030 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 16.250-16.550 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 12.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,328 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.58, for a total value of $439,010.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 8,060 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,474.80. This represents a 14.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 704 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.30, for a total transaction of $232,531.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 27,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,928,669.60. This represents a 2.54% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,688 shares of company stock worth $7,477,392. 0.48% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

F5 Company Profile

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.