Key Points
- Insider John Anthony Maddison sold 1,000 shares of F5 on Feb. 10 at an average price of $280.66 for $280,660, leaving him with 2,925 shares (a 25.48% reduction) valued at about $820,930.50.
- The sale was part of clustered insider selling the same day (also by EVP Angelique Okeke, CTO Kunal Anand and EVP Thomas Fountain), a pattern investors may view as concerning and which is documented in SEC Form 4 filings.
- Separately, F5 is facing multiple investor notices about a securities‑class action tied to alleged BIG‑IP security issues, with a Feb. 17, 2026 lead‑plaintiff deadline that could increase legal and financial risk.
F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) CTO Kunal Anand sold 377 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.32, for a total transaction of $104,926.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 8,971 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,496,808.72. This represents a 4.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.
F5 Trading Up 0.1%
NASDAQ FFIV opened at $282.67 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $15.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.38, a PEG ratio of 8.08 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of $265.85 and a 200-day moving average of $285.53. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $223.76 and a 1-year high of $346.00.
F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 27th. The network technology company reported $4.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.63 by $0.82. F5 had a return on equity of 22.08% and a net margin of 22.45%.The firm had revenue of $822.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $755.97 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.84 EPS. The company's revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 3.340-3.460 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 15.650-16.050 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in F5 by 15,103.5% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,170,216 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $298,709,000 after acquiring an additional 1,162,519 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth $205,706,000. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in F5 by 175.2% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 958,947 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $244,781,000 after buying an additional 610,437 shares during the period. UBS Group AG grew its position in shares of F5 by 141.2% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,023,869 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $261,353,000 after buying an additional 599,384 shares during the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $140,460,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.
Key Stories Impacting F5
Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:
- Positive Sentiment: F5 reported a strong January quarter (EPS and revenue beat) and set FY26 guidance above some expectations, which supports the bull case for continued margin strength and cash generation. Read More.
- Positive Sentiment: Large institutional buying in Q4 (notably Northwestern Mutual, Norges Bank, Deutsche Bank, UBS and others) shows heavy ownership and conviction by major funds, which can stabilize the stock and reduce volatility from retail flows. (Institutional ownership data from filings/quarterly disclosures.)
- Positive Sentiment: Short interest fell materially in late January (~23.9% decline to ~2.31M shares, ~4.1% of float), lowering near‑term squeeze risk and potentially supporting the share price. (Reported short‑interest updates.)
- Neutral Sentiment: Some short‑interest data released Feb 10–11 shows inconsistent/zero values — likely a reporting glitch; treat anomalous zero figures with caution and rely on January figures instead.
- Neutral Sentiment: Analyst coverage remains mixed: consensus is a "Hold" with a ~$310 target and a range of opinions (Buy/Hold/Sell). Investor reaction will depend on whether guidance and product traction beat expectations in coming quarters. (Market analyst summaries.)
- Positive Sentiment: Third‑party coverage highlights F5's multi‑cloud pipeline and product refresh as strategic positives that could drive license and subscription growth. Read More.
- Negative Sentiment: Clustered insider selling reported Feb 10: EVP John Maddison (1,000 shares at ~$280.66), EVP Angelique Okeke (386 shares), CTO Kunal Anand (377 shares) and EVP Thomas Fountain (1,297 shares). Multiple Form 4s can spook investors even if sales are for diversification/liquidity — review filings for context. Read More. Read More. Read More. Read More.
- Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms have filed or are soliciting lead‑plaintiff claims in a securities class action (alleging product security/ disclosure issues around BIG‑IP), with a Feb 17 lead‑plaintiff deadline — increasing litigation visibility and potential financial/ reputational risk. Representative notices: Hagens Berman, Rosen, Faruqi, Bernstein Liebhard, Levi & Korsinsky. Read More. Read More.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
FFIV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised F5 from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $295.00 to $345.00 in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Wall Street Zen lowered F5 from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, November 28th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $325.00 target price (up previously from $295.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of F5 from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $309.89.
Read Our Latest Research Report on FFIV
About F5
(
Get Free Report)
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.
Further Reading

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