F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Releases Q3 2026 Earnings Guidance

Key Points

• F5 updated Q3 2026 guidance, forecasting EPS of $3.91–$4.03 (vs. consensus $3.68) and revenue of $820–$840 million (vs. consensus $818.4M).
• The company recently topped expectations with $4.45 EPS and $822.47M revenue for the prior quarter, a 7.3% year‑over‑year revenue increase and strong margins.
• Shares jumped to $304.35 on the news, while analysts remain mixed—MarketBeat shows a consensus "Hold" with an average target of $311, though several firms have raised price targets (e.g., Piper Sandler to $325, RBC to $345).

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) updated its third quarter 2026 earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of 3.910-4.030 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of 3.680. The company issued revenue guidance of $820.0 million-$840.0 million, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $818.4 million.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Research upgraded F5 from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $325.00 target price (up from $295.00) on shares of F5 in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Barclays boosted their price target on F5 from $267.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on F5 from $325.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $311.00.

F5 Price Performance

F5 stock traded up $6.63 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $304.35. 1,648,760 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 838,365. The company's fifty day moving average price is $290.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $273.73. The company has a market cap of $17.20 billion, a PE ratio of 25.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.45 and a beta of 0.93. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $223.76 and a fifty-two week high of $346.00.

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 firm 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%.F5's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.84 EPS. On average, analysts expect that F5 will post 12.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, insider John Anthony Maddison sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.66, for a total value of $280,660.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 2,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $820,930.50. This represents a 25.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,770 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.25, for a total value of $487,192.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,840 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,882,710. The trade was a 20.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 13,508 shares of company stock worth $3,792,053 over the last 90 days. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of F5 by 7.5% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 70.1% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 14,356 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $3,665,000 after acquiring an additional 5,917 shares during the last quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 35.4% in the 4th quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 11,100 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $2,833,000 after acquiring an additional 2,900 shares during the last quarter. Caitlin John LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 15,212.0% in the 4th quarter. Caitlin John LLC now owns 3,828 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $977,000 after acquiring an additional 3,803 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 16,938 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $4,324,000 after acquiring an additional 1,193 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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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