F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Releases FY 2026 Earnings Guidance

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) updated its FY 2026 earnings guidance on Monday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of 17.210-17.330 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of 15.750. The company issued revenue guidance of $3.4 billion-$3.4 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $3.3 billion. F5 also updated its Q4 2026 guidance to 4.140-4.260 EPS.

F5 Stock Up 4.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $407.96 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $400.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $330.81. F5 has a 12-month low of $223.76 and a 12-month high of $435.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.60 and a beta of 1.03.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on FFIV shares. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Zacks Research raised F5 from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Evercore upgraded 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. Bank of America lifted their price target on F5 from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on F5 from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. One investment 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 issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.89.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $399.35, for a total transaction of $399,350.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,947 shares in the company, valued at $1,975,584.45. This trade represents a 16.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,783 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.39, for a total value of $1,276,346.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 146,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,592,618.71. This represents a 2.51% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 22,579 shares of company stock valued at $7,836,860 in the last three months. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

F5 News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5 reported adjusted earnings of $4.73 per share, well above the roughly $4.00 consensus estimate, while revenue of $865.1 million exceeded expectations near $834.6 million. Revenue increased 10.9% year over year, and EPS rose from $4.16 in the comparable period. F5 quarterly earnings report
• Positive Sentiment: Product revenue grew 19%, marking eight consecutive quarters of double-digit product growth. Management said F5’s platform is becoming increasingly mission-critical for securing applications and APIs in an AI-driven environment. F5 Reports Third Quarter Results
• Positive Sentiment: F5 raised its fiscal 2026 revenue-growth forecast for the third time this year, citing strong cybersecurity demand. Its full-year EPS outlook of $17.21–$17.33 is above the approximately $15.75 analyst consensus, while projected revenue of about $3.4 billion also exceeds expectations. F5 raises annual revenue growth forecast
• Positive Sentiment: Fourth-quarter guidance was also ahead of forecasts, with EPS of $4.14–$4.26 versus a $3.95 consensus and revenue of $870 million–$890 million versus expectations of $858 million. F5 Fiscal Q3 Earnings and Guidance

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp boosted its position in F5 by 1.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,226,326 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,042,716,000 after purchasing an additional 53,712 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in F5 by 68.5% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,753,652 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $702,897,000 after purchasing an additional 1,119,291 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in F5 by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,537,680 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $392,508,000 after purchasing an additional 106,616 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of F5 by 2.5% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,017,715 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $328,915,000 after purchasing an additional 25,052 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in shares of F5 by 175.2% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 958,947 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $244,781,000 after purchasing an additional 610,437 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.