Northern Trust Corp Grows Position in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 15.5% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,054,701 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 141,680 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp’s holdings in F5 were worth $280,835,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of FFIV. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 134.1% during the first quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 103 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in F5 by 275.0% during the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 105 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at $60,000. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its position in shares of F5 by 31.4% in the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 293 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $78,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on FFIV. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of F5 in a research note on Monday, July 7th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on F5 from $274.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $309.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.73, for a total value of $417,206.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 20,699 shares in the company, valued at $6,411,101.27. This trade represents a 6.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $308.14, for a total value of $400,582.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,153 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,942,545.42. This trade represents a 1.17% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,544 shares of company stock valued at $3,862,333. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Up 0.1%

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $315.79 on Thursday. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $195.06 and a 12-month high of $334.00. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $302.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $286.40. The stock has a market cap of $18.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.82, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.03.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.67. F5 had a net margin of 22.06% and a return on equity of 21.77%. The firm had revenue of $780.37 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.64 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.36 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its FY 2025 guidance at 15.240-15.380 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 3.870-3.990 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 Profile

F5, Inc provides multi-cloud application security and delivery solutions in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. The company’s distributed cloud services enable its customers to deploy, secure, and operate applications in any architecture, from on-premises to the public cloud.