--- title: "Seven F5 officers sold $7.2 million of stock, four sales at $324.06, below F5's $422 buyback price" description: "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." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Security" published: 2026-11-06T16:20:32.050Z modified: 2026-11-06T16:20:32.050Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/seven-f5-officers-sold-7-2-million-of-stock-four-sales-at-324-06-below-f5-s-422-buyback-price language: en keywords: "Insider Selling, F5, Stock Moves, Buybacks, Earnings" --- # 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. Seven [F5](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/f5) 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 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. The sellers: chief technology operations officer Michael Montoya, services head Thomas Fountain, sales head Chad Whalen, chief technology officer [Kunal Anand](https://theinference.org/markets/people/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](https://theinference.org/article/f5-delivered-its-best-ai-era-quarter-and-lost-a-quarter-of-its-value-in-three-days)) [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 [1][9]. 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](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000186946626000016/0001869466-26-000016-index.htm), 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 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. 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 [4][5][6][7][8]. 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]. *Chart: **Two division chiefs carried $5.4 million of the suite's $7.2 million** Bar chart ranking the seven F5 officers' November 3-4 sale proceeds, from Fountain's $3.1 million down to Werner's $0.194 million* *Sale proceeds in millions of dollars at the precision each Form 4 summary states, from seven F5 officer filings dated November 3 and 4, 2026. Sources: SEC Form 4 filings [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]* ## 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](https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/filing-mirae-asset-global-investments-co-ltd-buys-23782-shares-of-f5-inc-ffiv-2026-11-05/) 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](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/f5-inc-ffiv-q4-2026-050558969.html) [10]. Four of the seven officer sales cleared at $324.06 [4][5][6][7]. *Chart: **Every anchor sits above $420; the plans sold at $324.06** Bar chart of F5 price anchors from the 12-month high of $483.30 down to the November 5 open of $329.70, with a reference line at the officers' $324.06 sale price* *Dollars per share. High, 50-day average, open and consensus target from MarketBeat data as of November 5, 2026; buyback average from F5's fiscal Q4 disclosures; the $324.06 reference price from the four officers' Form 4s. Sources: [4] [5] [6] [7] [9] [10]. [4][5][6][7][9][10]* ## 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 [9][10]. 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]. ## Takeaway Seven F5 officers sold $7.2 million of stock days after the October 27 report broke the stock, all under pre-set 10b5-1 plans, at prices below every anchor including the company's own $422 buyback average; the $1.5 billion buyback now meets that insider supply. ## Sources 1. [SEC Form 4, F5 Inc., Michael F. Montoya, Chief Technology Operations Officer, filed 5 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000186946626000016/0001869466-26-000016-index.htm) 2. [SEC Form 4, F5 Inc., Thomas Dean Fountain, EVP Global Services & Strategy, filed 5 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000172833026000022/0001728330-26-000022-index.htm) 3. [SEC Form 4, F5 Inc., Chad Michael Whalen, EVP Worldwide Sales, filed 5 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000174664026000014/0001746640-26-000014-index.htm) 4. [SEC Form 4, F5 Inc., Kunal Anand, Chief Technology Officer, filed 5 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000201685726000014/0002016857-26-000014-index.htm) 5. [SEC Form 4, F5 Inc., Edward Cooper Werner, Chief Financial Officer, filed 5 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000204264726000020/0002042647-26-000020-index.htm) 6. [SEC Form 4, F5 Inc., John Anthony Maddison, Chief Product Marketing Officer, filed 5 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000204605426000016/0002046054-26-000016-index.htm) 7. [SEC Form 4, F5 Inc., Angelique M. Okeke, EVP General Counsel, filed 5 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000206065026000016/0002060650-26-000016-index.htm) 8. [The Inference, "F5 delivered its best AI-era quarter and lost a quarter of its value in three days", 1 November 2026](https://theinference.org/article/f5-delivered-its-best-ai-era-quarter-and-lost-a-quarter-of-its-value-in-three-days) 9. [MarketBeat, "Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Buys 23,782 Shares of F5, Inc. FFIV", 5 November 2026](https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/filing-mirae-asset-global-investments-co-ltd-buys-23782-shares-of-f5-inc-ffiv-2026-11-05/) 10. [GuruFocus via Yahoo Finance, "F5 Inc (FFIV) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Highlights", 28 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/f5-inc-ffiv-q4-2026-050558969.html) --- Seven F5 officers sold $7.2 million of stock, four sales at $324.06, below F5's $422 buyback price — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/seven-f5-officers-sold-7-2-million-of-stock-four-sales-at-324-06-below-f5-s-422-buyback-price