Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price upped by research analysts at Barclays from $267.00 to $283.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Barclays‘s price target indicates a potential downside of 2.85% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada raised F5 from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $315.00 to $325.00 in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $325.00 price target (up from $295.00) on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Monday, December 29th. 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 research report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $307.11.

F5 Trading Up 7.7%

F5 stock traded up $20.88 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $291.31. The stock had a trading volume of 1,228,603 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,076,938. F5 has a 12 month low of $223.76 and a 12 month high of $346.00. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $256.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $286.88. The company has a market capitalization of $16.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.58, a PEG ratio of 8.39 and a beta of 0.98.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The network technology company reported $4.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.82. The company had revenue of $822.47 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $755.97 million. F5 had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 21.76%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.84 earnings per share. 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 predict that F5 will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $236.99, for a total value of $308,087.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 150,323 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,625,047.77. The trade was a 0.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 8,318 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.78, for a total transaction of $2,077,670.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 22,493 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,618,301.54. This represents a 27.00% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 33,815 shares of company stock worth $8,444,286. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 275.0% in the second quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 90 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at $37,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 288.1% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 163 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC purchased a new stake in F5 during the second quarter worth approximately $45,000. Finally, CNB Bank acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the second quarter worth about $49,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5 reported blockbuster Q1 results — GAAP EPS $4.45 vs. ~$3.63 consensus and revenue $822.5M vs. ~$756M; management cited strong product revenue (~11% growth), AI and hybrid/multi‑cloud demand, and the stock rallied after-hours. F5 surges after Q1 results topple estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Company raised guidance materially: FY2026 EPS guide 15.65–16.05 (well above Street ~13.81) and Q2 EPS guide 3.34–3.46 (vs. ~3.05 consensus), supporting the bullish reaction and implying stronger margin/cash conversion than expected. F5 Inc Q1 2026 Earnings Call Highlights
• Neutral Sentiment: Some analysts are staying cautious despite the beat — Needham reaffirmed a “hold,” a reminder that not all sell‑side views turned bullish on the print. Needham hold reaffirmed (Benzinga)
• Neutral Sentiment: Several outlets are debating valuation and whether recent gains already price in AI/application‑security upside; investors should compare elevated guidance to the stock’s P/E and moving averages. Is F5 Fairly Priced (Yahoo Finance)
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms and investor alerts continue to pursue securities‑class actions tied to F5’s disclosed “material cybersecurity incident” last year; ongoing litigation and potential remediation costs/loss of customer trust are a notable risk that could cap gains. KSF class action notice (GlobeNewswire)
• Negative Sentiment: Hagens Berman and other firms are investigating claims related to the cybersecurity incident and its revenue impact; regulators/litigation developments and the Feb. 17 lead‑plaintiff deadlines bear watching. Hagens Berman investigation (GlobeNewswire)

About F5

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.