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

Key Points

• Barclays raised its F5 price target to $397 from $386 but maintained an “equal weight” rating, implying about 2.69% downside from the stock’s current price.
• F5 reported quarterly adjusted EPS of $4.73 and revenue of $865.1 million, beating estimates of $4.00 and $834.6 million, respectively; revenue grew 10.9% year over year.
• The company issued stronger-than-expected fiscal 2026 and fourth-quarter guidance, while analysts’ consensus rating remained “Moderate Buy” with an average price target of $383.89.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) had its price objective lifted by equities research analysts at Barclays from $386.00 to $397.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm presently has an "equal weight" rating on the network technology company's stock. Barclays's target price points to a potential downside of 2.69% from the stock's current price.

FFIV has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on F5 from $356.00 to $423.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of F5 from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Evercore raised shares of F5 from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $475.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $383.89.

F5 Trading Up 4.0%

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $407.96 on Tuesday. The stock 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 has a 1 year low of $223.76 and a 1 year high of $435.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $400.80 and a 200-day moving average of $330.81.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.00 by $0.73. F5 had a return on equity of 21.50% and a net margin of 21.96%.The business had revenue of $865.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $834.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $4.16 EPS. F5's revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that F5 will post 12.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,783 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 146,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,592,618.71. This trade represents a 2.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Kunal Anand sold 3,123 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.33, for a total value of $1,006,636.59. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 12,194 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,930,492.02. The trade was a 20.39% 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 three months, insiders sold 22,579 shares of company stock worth $7,836,860. Corporate insiders own 0.48% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. acquired a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 109.8% during the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. lifted its holdings in F5 by 963.6% in the first quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 117 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 113.8% in the first quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 124 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

More F5 News

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

F5 Company Profile

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.

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