F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Hits New 1-Year High – What’s Next?

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $428.79 and last traded at $427.75, with a volume of 23526 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $419.14.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on FFIV. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of F5 from $425.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Evercore upgraded shares of F5 from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $475.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $355.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $356.00 to $423.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $382.67.

F5 Stock Up 2.4%

The firm has a market cap of $24.21 billion, a PE ratio of 35.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.89 and a beta of 1.03. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $383.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $316.99.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.47 by $0.43. The firm had revenue of $811.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $783.82 million. F5 had a net margin of 21.96% and a return on equity of 21.50%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.42 earnings per share. 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 12.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, CFO Edward Cooper Werner sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total value of $1,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 406 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $162,400. This represents a 86.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,328 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.58, for a total value of $439,010.24. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 8,060 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,474.80. The trade was a 14.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 22,579 shares of company stock valued at $7,836,860. 0.48% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter valued at $579,699,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in F5 by 15,103.5% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,170,216 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $298,709,000 after acquiring an additional 1,162,519 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in F5 by 68.5% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,753,652 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $702,897,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119,291 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter worth about $205,706,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in F5 by 175.2% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 958,947 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $244,781,000 after purchasing an additional 610,437 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.