F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Announces Earnings Results

Key Points

• Earnings beat: F5 reported quarterly EPS of $3.90, beating consensus of $3.44 by $0.46, and updated Q3 2026 guidance to a range of $3.910–$4.030.
• Stock reaction: Shares rose $6.63 to $304.35 on above-average volume, leaving the market cap around $17.2B and a P/E of about 25.2.
• Insider sales: Both the CFO and CEO disclosed stock sales on March 4 (total insiders sold 13,508 shares worth roughly $3.8M over the past 90 days), modestly reducing their ownership stakes.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The network technology company reported $3.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.46, FiscalAI reports. F5 had a net margin of 22.45% and a return on equity of 22.08%. F5 updated its Q3 2026 guidance to 3.910-4.030 EPS.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV traded up $6.63 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $304.35. The company had a trading volume of 1,643,302 shares, compared to its average volume of 829,936. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $290.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $273.73. The company has a market capitalization of $17.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.17, a PEG ratio of 8.45 and a beta of 0.93. F5 has a 12-month low of $223.76 and a 12-month high of $346.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Edward Cooper Werner sold 969 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.20, for a total value of $273,451.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 5,305 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,497,071. This represents a 15.44% 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, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,755 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.53, for a total transaction of $1,064,655.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 150,323 shares of the company's stock, valued at $42,621,080.19. This trade represents a 2.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 13,508 shares of company stock valued at $3,792,053 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.48% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in F5 by 64.5% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 153 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in F5 by 288.1% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 163 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new position in F5 during the second quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Triumph Capital Management bought a new position in F5 during the third quarter valued at approximately $100,000. Finally, Advisory Services Network LLC bought a new position in F5 during the third quarter valued at approximately $116,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on FFIV shares. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $325.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $325.00 price objective (up from $295.00) on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $267.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of F5 from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $311.00.

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.

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