Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Acquires Shares of 7,181 F5, Inc. $FFIV

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. acquired a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 7,181 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,987,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of FFIV. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,611,637,000. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter worth $579,699,000. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in F5 by 68.5% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,753,652 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $702,897,000 after purchasing an additional 1,119,291 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter worth $205,706,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 610,437 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $461.00 price target (up from $423.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Zacks Research cut F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Bank of America upped their price objective on F5 from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $416.62.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, CFO Edward Cooper Werner sold 2,500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was 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 $162,400. The trade was a 86.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,208 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.63, for a total value of $500,873.04. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 8,060 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,341,917.80. This trade represents a 13.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 15,699 shares of company stock worth $6,316,411. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

F5 Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of F5 stock opened at $379.04 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $21.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 1.03. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $223.76 and a 52-week high of $435.00. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $403.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $349.07.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.00 by $0.73. F5 had a net margin of 21.95% and a return on equity of 21.54%. The firm had revenue of $865.08 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $834.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $4.16 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 13.65 EPS for the current year.

F5 Profile

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.