F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Issues FY 2026 Earnings Guidance

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) issued an update on its FY 2026 earnings guidance on Tuesday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of 15.650-16.050 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of 13.810. The company issued revenue guidance of $3.2 billion-$3.3 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $3.2 billion. F5 also updated its Q2 2026 guidance to 3.340-3.460 EPS.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $292.30 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $257.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $286.92. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $223.76 and a fifty-two week high of $346.00. The company has a market capitalization of $16.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.75, a P/E/G ratio of 8.48 and a beta of 0.98.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The network technology company reported $4.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.82. F5 had a return on equity of 22.20% and a net margin of 22.45%.The company had revenue of $822.47 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $755.97 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.84 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, analysts forecast that F5 will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the subject of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded F5 from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $295.00 to $345.00 in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Zacks Research raised F5 from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI reiterated a “cautious” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on F5 from $325.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $309.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $236.99, for a total transaction of $308,087.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 150,323 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,625,047.77. This trade represents a 0.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,309 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.11, for a total transaction of $310,376.99. Following the sale, the director directly owned 8,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,041,517.10. This represents a 13.20% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 37,158 shares of company stock worth $9,319,717. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

F5 News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5 beat Q1 estimates and raised guidance: reported $4.45 EPS vs. ~$3.63 consensus and $822.5M revenue vs. ~$756M; company raised FY26 EPS guidance to 15.65–16.05 and Q2 EPS to 3.34–3.46 — the primary driver of the rally. Press Release
• Positive Sentiment: RBC Capital boosted its price target to $345 and kept an outperform view — reinforces upside expectations and supports continued buying interest. RBC PT Raise
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks upgraded FFIV to a #1 (Strong Buy), adding sell‑side momentum to post‑earnings strength. Zacks Upgrade
• Neutral Sentiment: Barclays nudged its target to $283 but kept an equal‑weight rating — a mild offset to bullish analyst commentary. Barclays Note
• Neutral Sentiment: An F5 EVP, Thomas Dean Fountain, sold 3,343 shares at about $261.87 (SEC Form 4 filed); recurring insider selling can be benign but is monitored by investors. SEC Form 4
• Neutral Sentiment: Post‑earnings commentary notes strong systems/product demand and AI/regulatory tailwinds but flags margin pressure (memory costs) and competitive/operational risks — some investors may wait for a clearer valuation. Seeking Alpha Analysis
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms have issued investor alerts and filed/solicited class actions related to a prior material cybersecurity incident and earlier stock decline; upcoming lead‑plaintiff deadlines raise legal and reputational risk that could pressure the stock. Hagens Berman Alert

Institutional Trading of F5

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 288.1% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 163 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new stake in F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at $50,000. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the third quarter valued at about $100,000. Advisory Services Network LLC purchased a new stake in F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $116,000. Finally, Zacks Investment Management purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth approximately $202,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.