Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Price

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective upped by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $380.00 to $415.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target points to a potential upside of 3.36% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on FFIV. Zacks Research upgraded F5 from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $461.00 target price (up from $423.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays lifted their target price on F5 from $386.00 to $397.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Friday, June 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $408.67.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV traded down $6.46 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $401.50. The stock had a trading volume of 767,572 shares, compared to its average volume of 768,291. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $400.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $330.81. F5 has a twelve month low of $223.76 and a twelve month high of $435.00. The firm has a market cap of $22.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.60 and a beta of 1.03.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.00 by $0.73. F5 had a net margin of 21.96% and a return on equity of 21.50%. The company had revenue of $865.08 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $834.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $4.16 earnings per share. F5’s revenue for the quarter 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 analysts forecast that F5 will post 12.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $399.35, for a total transaction of $399,350.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,947 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,975,584.45. This represents a 16.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Edward Cooper Werner sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total transaction of $1,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 406 shares in the company, valued at $162,400. This trade represents a 86.03% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 22,579 shares of company stock valued at $7,836,860. 0.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter worth $205,706,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 127.0% during the fourth quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 34,529 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $8,814,000 after buying an additional 19,315 shares during the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the first quarter worth about $6,469,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $140,460,000. Finally, Tredje AP fonden raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 98.2% in the 4th quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 7,683 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,961,000 after acquiring an additional 3,807 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong earnings and revenue beat estimates. F5 reported adjusted EPS of $4.73, well above the roughly $4.00 consensus, while revenue rose 10.9% year over year to $865.1 million versus expectations of approximately $834.6 million. F5 Networks Beats Q3 Earnings and Revenue Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Product growth remained particularly strong. Product revenue increased 19%, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit product growth. Management said F5’s application and API security offerings are becoming increasingly mission-critical as companies address cybersecurity risks associated with artificial intelligence. F5 Reports Third Quarter Results with 19% Product Revenue Growth
• Positive Sentiment: F5 raised its outlook again. Fiscal fourth-quarter guidance calls for EPS of $4.14-$4.26 and revenue of $870 million-$890 million, ahead of consensus estimates of $3.95 EPS and $858 million revenue. Full-year fiscal 2026 EPS guidance was raised to $17.21-$17.33, versus an analyst consensus near $15.75, while revenue guidance was lifted to approximately $3.4 billion. F5 Raises Annual Revenue Growth Forecast Again
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised forecasts following the results. JPMorgan increased its price target from $500 to $515 and maintained an Overweight rating, offering a favorable signal for investor sentiment. Analysts Increase Forecasts on F5 Following Upbeat Q3 Earnings
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst views remain mixed. Barclays raised its target from $386 to $397 but kept an Equal Weight rating, while the reported average analyst target of $382.67 sits below the recent trading level. This suggests some analysts see limited near-term upside after the stock’s substantial rally.

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.