F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) CTO Kunal Anand Sells 392 Shares

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) CTO Kunal Anand sold 392 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $404.63, for a total transaction of $158,614.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 12,586 shares in the company, valued at $5,092,673.18. This represents a 3.02% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

F5 Stock Up 1.5%

F5 stock opened at $412.25 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $23.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.82, a PEG ratio of 4.00 and a beta of 1.03. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $402.13 and its 200 day moving average is $336.34. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $223.76 and a 52-week high of $435.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.00 by $0.73. F5 had a net margin of 21.95% and a return on equity of 21.54%. The business had revenue of $865.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $834.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $4.16 earnings per share. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 13.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, with earnings per share of $4.73 versus the $4.00 consensus estimate and revenue of $865.1 million versus $834.6 million expected. Revenue rose 10.9% year over year, while the company maintained fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 earnings guidance. F5 stock and earnings information
• Positive Sentiment: F5 was placed in the “Leader” tier of SecureIQLab’s 2026 Cloud WAAP CyberRisk Validation Comparative Report, supporting the company’s positioning in cloud web application and API protection. F5 SecureIQLab report
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains mixed. Piper Sandler raised its price target to $461 and retained an overweight rating, while Morgan Stanley lifted its target to $415 but maintained an equal-weight rating. The consensus rating remains “Hold,” with an average target of $416.62. F5 analyst price targets
• Negative Sentiment: Several insiders reported sales executed under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans. The transactions included sales by the CFO, CTO and multiple executive vice presidents, totaling roughly $1.30 million on August 3, in addition to a director’s previously reported $1.56 million sale. These planned sales may create a modest overhang, although they do not necessarily indicate a change in the company’s outlook.

Institutional Trading of F5

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its stake in F5 by 2.6% in the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 17,600 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $7,321,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the second quarter valued at approximately $213,000. Agate Pass Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 during the second quarter valued at approximately $250,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 373.1% during the second quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 123 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 4.3% in the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 16,059 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $6,680,000 after buying an additional 666 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on FFIV. Wall Street Zen upgraded F5 from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $461.00 price objective (up from $423.00) on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Barclays lifted their target price on F5 from $386.00 to $397.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $416.62.

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.