Seven F5 officers sold $7.2 million of stock, four sales at $324.06, below F5's $422 buyback price
Seven F5 officers sold 21,848 shares for about $7.2 million on November 3 and 4, every sale under a Rule 10b5-1 plan adopted before the October 27 report that broke the stock. Four prints cleared at an identical $324.06, below every anchor from the 50-day average to F5's own $422 buyback price.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
Seven F5−0.04% — F5, down 0.04 percent today officers sold 21,848 shares for about $7.2 million on November 3 and 4, counted from the Form 4s, the SEC's insider-transaction record, that hit the SEC's EDGAR system on November 5 1234567. The sellers: chief technology operations officer Michael Montoya, services head Thomas Fountain, sales head Chad Whalen, chief technology officer Kunal Anand, finance chief Cooper Werner, marketing chief John Maddison and general counsel Angelique Okeke.
They sold into a stock that had lost about a quarter of its value in three sessions the week before (The Inference, November 1) 8. Montoya's line is the sharpest: he finished November 4 holding 1,309 shares, exactly what he kept after selling 4,426 at $410.16 on September 14 19. His filing lists sales only, no award, so the 1,297 shares he sold at weighted averages of $327.23 to $336.65 appear to have vested in between 1.
Every plan was adopted before the crash
Every sale ran under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, which schedules insider trades in advance so they cannot react to news, adopted between October 29, 2025, and June 15, 2026, months before the October 27 report 1234567. Four of the seven, Werner, Anand, Okeke and Maddison, still printed at an identical $324.06 a share on November 3, below the $338.34 close of October 30, which points to one shared execution window rather than four separate decisions 45678.
Fountain sold 9,387 shares at $329.74, about $3.1 million, and kept 8,060, less than he sold 2. Whalen sold 6,950 for about $2.3 million and kept 25,467 3.
Two division chiefs carried $5.4 million of the suite's $7.2 million
Fountain and Whalen, the two division chiefs, were three-quarters of the selling
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Fountain (services) | $3.1M |
| Whalen (sales) | $2.3M |
| Anand (CTO) | $0.65M |
| Montoya (CTO ops) | $0.43M |
| Okeke (counsel) | $0.33M |
| Maddison (marketing) | $0.2M |
| Werner (CFO) | $0.19M |
Every anchor sits above $420
The 12-month high is $483.30, the 50-day average $425.41, the consensus target $443, and Piper Sandler, the brokerage, cut the stock to Neutral on October 28 with a $461 target still attached 9.
Mirae Asset Global Investments paid roughly $445 a share for a new September-quarter stake, 23,782 shares worth $10.6 million on its 13F, the quarterly filing in which fund managers disclose US stock holdings 9. F5 itself paid an average $422 for the $100 million of stock it bought back in the September quarter 10. Four of the seven officer sales cleared at $324.06 4567.
Every anchor sits above $420; the plans sold at $324.06
The crash-floor open sits below every anchor; the plans printed at $324.06
- Estimate
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| 12-month high | $483.3 |
| Consensus target (estimate) | $443 |
| 50-day average | $425.41 |
| F5 Q4 buyback avg | $422 |
| Open, November 5 | $329.7 |
A $1.5 billion bid now meets the suite's supply
The board authorized the $1.5 billion buyback on October 27, on top of $600 million spent in fiscal 2026 910. The outlook that broke the stock stands: revenue growth guided to 8 or 9 percent for fiscal 2027, down from 11, a slowdown management tied partly to the hardware systems-refresh cycle, with component costs pressing gross margin down from 84 percent 10.
Insider flow has run one way for a year, $28.8 million sold and none bought, mostly under standing plans 8. The next quarterly filing settles it: what the buyback actually paid, near the old $422 average or near $324, where its officers' supply cleared 10.
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