F5, Inc. $FFIV Shares Sold by Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lessened its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 92.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,640 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 20,769 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in F5 were worth $419,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of F5 by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,357,293 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,878,023,000 after purchasing an additional 114,533 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of F5 by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,226,326 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,042,716,000 after purchasing an additional 53,712 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in shares of F5 by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,634,361 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $528,209,000 after purchasing an additional 18,806 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its position in shares of F5 by 141.2% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,023,869 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $261,353,000 after purchasing an additional 599,384 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of F5 by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,017,715 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $328,915,000 after purchasing an additional 25,052 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on FFIV. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $345.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of F5 from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, March 30th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $283.00 to $292.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $316.44.

F5 News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research increased its FY2026 EPS estimate for F5 to $12.80 from $12.33, above the broader consensus of $12.71, signaling improving near-term earnings expectations.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts also lifted FY2027 EPS to $13.02 from $12.67 and FY2028 EPS to $13.48 from $13.34, reinforcing the view that F5’s earnings trajectory remains strong.
• Positive Sentiment: Several quarterly estimates were nudged higher, including Q1 2027, Q3 2027, Q4 2027, Q1 2028, and Q2 2028, which may add confidence in the company’s longer-term outlook.
• Neutral Sentiment: Zacks lowered its Q2 2027 EPS estimate slightly to $2.92 from $2.96 and trimmed Q4 2026 to $3.22 from $3.28, though these minor cuts do not offset the broader upward revisions.
• Neutral Sentiment: F5 recently reported solid quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue expectations, which continues to provide a supportive backdrop for the stock. Article Title

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,770 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.25, for a total value of $487,192.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 6,840 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,882,710. This trade represents a 20.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,783 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.39, for a total transaction of $1,276,346.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 146,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,592,618.71. This represents a 2.51% decrease in their position. 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. Insiders have sold a total of 29,328 shares of company stock worth $9,319,571 over the last three months. 0.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

F5 Stock Performance

F5 stock opened at $362.58 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $223.76 and a fifty-two week high of $365.83. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $306.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $276.69. The company has a market capitalization of $20.46 billion, a PE ratio of 29.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.38 and a beta of 1.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.47 by $0.43. F5 had a net margin of 21.96% and a return on equity of 21.50%. The firm had revenue of $811.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $783.82 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.42 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.910-4.030 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 16.250-16.550 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

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.