Short Interest in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Expands By 39.5%

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totaling 2,580,000 shares, a growth of 39.5% from the September 30th total of 1,850,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 589,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.4 days. Currently, 4.5% of the shares of the company are short sold. Currently, 4.5% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 589,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.4 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $320.61, for a total value of $416,793.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 107,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,482,567.33. The trade was a 1.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 2,701 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.57, for a total value of $855,055.57. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 9,298 shares of company stock valued at $2,978,754. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in F5 during the 1st quarter worth approximately $240,000. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 12,519 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,333,000 after acquiring an additional 858 shares during the period. Penserra Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 10.2% in the 1st quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 281,418 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $74,933,000 after acquiring an additional 26,105 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 1,398.6% in the 1st quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 22,943 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $6,109,000 after acquiring an additional 21,412 shares during the period. Finally, Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 10,829 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,883,000 after acquiring an additional 354 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ FFIV traded down $4.01 on Monday, hitting $249.04. 1,493,173 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 585,111. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.56 and a quick ratio of 1.56. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $315.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $300.02. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $227.04 and a fifty-two week high of $346.00. The firm has a market cap of $14.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.09, a P/E/G ratio of 7.53 and a beta of 1.06.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the subject of several research reports. Zacks Research downgraded F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on F5 from $350.00 to $315.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on F5 from $352.00 to $336.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Barclays reduced their price objective on F5 from $321.00 to $267.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on F5 from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.56.

About F5

F5, Inc provides multi-cloud application security and delivery solutions in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. The company’s distributed cloud services enable its customers to deploy, secure, and operate applications in any architecture, from on-premises to the public cloud.