Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 4,111 Shares of F5, Inc. $FFIV

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 4.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 79,186 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 4,111 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.14% of F5 worth $22,911,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in F5 by 109.8% during the 4th quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. increased its position in F5 by 963.6% in the 1st quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 117 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its position in F5 by 113.8% in the 1st quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 124 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Down 0.8%

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $408.74 on Wednesday. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $223.76 and a 12 month high of $435.00. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $398.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $327.04. The company has a market capitalization of $23.06 billion, a PE ratio of 33.53, a P/E/G ratio of 4.83 and a beta of 1.03.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 earnings per share (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 return on equity of 21.50% and a net margin of 21.96%.The company’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $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. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 12.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FFIV. Zacks Research upgraded shares of F5 from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of F5 from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Bank of America upped their price objective on F5 from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on F5 from $356.00 to $423.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $382.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, CFO Edward Cooper Werner sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total value of $1,000,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 406 shares in the company, valued at approximately $162,400. This trade represents a 86.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Kunal Anand sold 3,123 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.33, for a total transaction of $1,006,636.59. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 12,194 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,930,492.02. This represents a 20.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 22,579 shares of company stock worth $7,836,860 over the last ninety days. 0.48% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.