Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Purchases 4,517 Shares of F5, Inc. $FFIV

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 3.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 146,855 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 4,517 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned 0.26% of F5 worth $47,462,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 166.5% during the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 62,906 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $16,750,000 after purchasing an additional 39,305 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 1,281.4% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $257,000 after buying an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of F5 by 38.4% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 298,297 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $79,428,000 after buying an additional 82,835 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the 1st quarter worth about $257,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 288.1% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 163 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,110 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 12th. The stock was 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 $3,315,945. The trade was a 8.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 150,323 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,625,047.77. This trade represents a 0.86% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 32,705 shares of company stock valued at $8,152,655 over the last three months. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Trading Up 2.4%

Shares of F5 stock opened at $273.99 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $223.76 and a 1 year high of $346.00. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $251.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $288.91. The company has a market cap of $15.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.20, a PEG ratio of 8.52 and a beta of 0.98.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on F5 from $336.00 to $296.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of F5 from $321.00 to $267.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 28th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.78.

More F5 News

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: J.P. Morgan upgraded F5 from Neutral to Overweight and raised its price target to $345, signaling stronger institutional conviction and driving buying interest. J.P. Morgan Upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum: F5’s NGINXaaS for Google Cloud got positive coverage for advancing cloud‑native application delivery and security — a commercial catalyst supporting long‑term cloud revenue growth. NGINXaaS for Google Cloud
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider selling: EVP Thomas Dean Fountain disclosed the sale of 1,110 shares on Jan. 12 (part of a pattern of periodic sales). Insider sales are disclosed and not uncommon; absent other context they are neutral-to-mildly negative. SEC Form 4
• Neutral Sentiment: Zacks trimmed a near‑term EPS estimate very slightly and retains a Hold — a modest analyst caution but not a material revision. MarketBeat / Zacks note
• Negative Sentiment: Litigation risk: Multiple plaintiff firms have filed or are soliciting for a securities class action alleging F5 under‑disclosed the financial impact of a material cybersecurity incident discovered Aug. 9, 2025. Notices from Hagens Berman, Robbins Geller and others warn of potential litigation costs, reputational harm and further scrutiny of guidance — a clear near‑term headwind. Representative notices: Hagens Berman Robbins Geller

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.