F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Releases FY 2026 Earnings Guidance

Key Points

• FY‑2026 EPS guidance of $16.250–$16.550 tops consensus (~$15.24) while revenue guidance of ~$3.3B is in line, and management set Q3 EPS guidance of $3.91–4.03—an overall upside catalyst for the name.
• F5 reported a strong quarter, delivering $4.45 EPS (vs. $3.63 est.) and $822.5M revenue (vs. $756M est.), with Q2 revenue up 11% year‑over‑year and product revenue up 22% (seventh straight quarter of double‑digit product growth).
• Shares rose about 2.2% on the news to $304.35 as several analysts raised price targets (e.g., RBC to $345, Piper Sandler to $325), though the consensus rating remains a Hold with an average target near $311.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) updated its FY 2026 earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of 16.250-16.550 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of 15.240. The company issued revenue guidance of $3.3 billion-$3.3 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $3.3 billion. F5 also updated its Q3 2026 guidance to 3.910-4.030 EPS.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FFIV. Barclays lifted their price objective on F5 from $267.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on F5 from $325.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $325.00 target price (up from $295.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Weiss Ratings raised F5 from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $311.00.

F5 Stock Up 2.2%

FFIV traded up $6.63 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $304.35. 1,712,149 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 839,201. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.17, a PEG ratio of 8.45 and a beta of 0.93. F5 has a 1-year low of $223.76 and a 1-year high of $346.00. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $290.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $273.73.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The network technology company reported $4.45 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.82. The company had revenue of $822.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $755.97 million. F5 had a return on equity of 22.08% and a net margin of 22.45%.The firm's revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.84 earnings per share. Analysts predict that F5 will post 12.32 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,755 shares of F5 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 150,323 shares of the company's stock, valued at $42,621,080.19. The trade was a 2.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,297 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.32, for a total value of $360,981.04. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 8,060 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,243,259.20. This trade represents a 13.86% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 13,508 shares of company stock valued at $3,792,053 over the last 90 days. 0.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting F5

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Reported quarter: F5 posted $3.90 EPS vs. $3.44 consensus, beating estimates and showing healthy profitability metrics. Quarterly Press Release
• Positive Sentiment: FY‑2026 guidance raised: F5 issued FY EPS guidance of 16.250–16.550 vs. consensus ~15.24, with revenue guidance ~ $3.3B (in line). The EPS guide above consensus is a clear upside catalyst for the stock.
• Positive Sentiment: Q3 guidance beat: F5 gave Q3 EPS guidance of 3.910–4.030 vs. consensus ~3.68 and revenue guidance $820M–$840M (vs. $818M cons.), signaling near‑term momentum.
• Positive Sentiment: Underlying growth: Management highlighted Q2 revenue of $812M, +11% year‑over‑year, driven by 22% product revenue growth (seventh straight quarter of double‑digit product growth), reinforcing durable demand for F5’s products. Q2 Results
• Positive Sentiment: Board addition: F5 added Anand Eswaran to its board (effective April 24), bringing enterprise software leadership and supporting F5’s AI/security strategy — a governance/strategy positive. Board Appointment TipRanks Coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst / press coverage: Comparative and preview pieces (e.g., Zacks 'WAY vs. FFIV' and a Yahoo Finance earnings preview) are providing context but are not material company actions. Zacks Article Yahoo Preview

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,190 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $309,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its position in F5 by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,047 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $338,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd raised its holdings in F5 by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 601 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $153,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the period. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in F5 by 5.0% during the third quarter. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,180 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $381,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. lifted 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 buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.