F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at Zacks Research

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) was downgraded by research analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

FFIV has been the subject of several other research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of F5 from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Evercore upgraded shares of F5 from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $475.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $408.67.

F5 Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $403.46 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $22.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.78 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $401.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $331.76. F5 has a 12-month low of $223.76 and a 12-month high of $435.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.00 by $0.73. F5 had a return on equity of 21.94% and a net margin of 21.95%.The business had revenue of $865.08 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $834.60 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.16 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue 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. On average, equities analysts forecast that F5 will post 12.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 6,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.19, for a total value of $2,171,178.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 20,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,295,158.08. This represents a 22.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Edward Cooper Werner sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total value of $1,000,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 406 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $162,400. This 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. Insiders sold 22,579 shares of company stock valued at $7,836,860 in the last 90 days. 0.48% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in F5 by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,357,293 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,878,023,000 after acquiring an additional 114,533 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of F5 by 1.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,226,326 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,042,716,000 after purchasing an additional 53,712 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of F5 by 68.5% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,753,652 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $702,897,000 after purchasing an additional 1,119,291 shares in the last quarter. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth approximately $579,699,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of F5 by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,537,680 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $392,508,000 after purchasing an additional 106,616 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about F5

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong Q3 results: F5 reported adjusted EPS of $4.73, above the $4.00 consensus, while revenue rose 10.9% year over year to $865.1 million, exceeding expectations of $834.6 million. Product revenue increased 19%, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit product growth. F5 Reports Third Quarter Results with 19% Product Revenue Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Higher guidance: Management raised its fiscal 2026 outlook, forecasting EPS of $17.21–$17.33 and revenue of approximately $3.4 billion. Fourth-quarter guidance of $4.14–$4.26 EPS and $870–$890 million in revenue also exceeds consensus estimates. The company cited strong cybersecurity demand, hybrid multicloud adoption and application-security growth. F5 raises annual revenue growth forecast
• Positive Sentiment: AI expansion: F5 plans to acquire CalypsoAI to add advanced AI guardrails for large enterprises, potentially strengthening its position in securing AI applications and APIs. F5 to Acquire CalypsoAI
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reactions are mixed: JPMorgan raised its target to $515 and kept an overweight rating, while Morgan Stanley lifted its target to $415 but maintained equal weight. Barclays raised its target to $397 and also kept equal weight. The reported average target of $382.67 remains below the current share price.
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and margins temper enthusiasm: With F5 trading near its 52-week high and at roughly 32 times earnings, investors may be taking profits. Coverage has also highlighted a cautious margin outlook, making the shares sensitive to any evidence that elevated AI and product investment could limit earnings expansion. F5 Lifts 2026 Outlook As Valuation Questions Come Into Focus

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.