F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Reaches New 1-Year High on Analyst Upgrade

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) shares reached a new 52-week high on Monday after Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $508.00 to $525.00. Royal Bank Of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. F5 traded as high as $484.49 and last traded at $480.9850, with a volume of 992 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $479.83.

Several other analysts have also commented on FFIV. Zacks Research lowered shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of F5 from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $461.00 price target (up from $423.00) on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $426.00.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,782 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.44, for a total transaction of $1,559,848.08. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 146,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,624,143.16. This represents a 2.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Thomas Fountain sold 1,208 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.63, for a total transaction of $500,873.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 8,060 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,341,917.80. The trade was a 13.03% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 16,829 shares of company stock valued at $6,815,302 in the last quarter. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,611,637,000. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter valued at about $579,699,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 24.8% during the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 726,844 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $302,338,000 after acquiring an additional 144,534 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new position in F5 during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $243,865,000. Finally, Amundi raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 96.0% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 555,809 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $231,194,000 after acquiring an additional 272,273 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

F5 Trading Down 1.3%

The firm has a market capitalization of $26.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $419.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $385.41.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.00 by $0.73. The business had revenue of $865.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $834.60 million. F5 had a net margin of 21.95% and a return on equity of 21.54%. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.16 earnings per share. 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, analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 13.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 Company Profile

F5, Inc develops application delivery, security and management technologies that help organizations deploy, protect and optimize applications across data centers, public clouds, edge environments and distributed networks. Its offerings are designed to support application availability, performance, scalability and security across hybrid and multi-cloud architectures.

The company’s portfolio includes BIG-IP application delivery and security solutions, NGINX web and application delivery technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud services.