William Blair Issues Pessimistic Outlook for F5 Earnings

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) - Equities research analysts at William Blair cut their Q3 2025 EPS estimates for F5 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, April 29th. William Blair analyst J. Ader now anticipates that the network technology company will post earnings per share of $2.74 for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $2.75. William Blair currently has a "Outperform" rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for F5's current full-year earnings is $11.20 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for F5's Q4 2025 earnings at $2.93 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $11.35 EPS.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. F5 had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 20.58%. The business had revenue of $590.16 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $719.91 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.91 earnings per share. F5's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $320.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and set a $290.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $282.56.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of F5 stock traded up $1.44 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $266.26. 88,880 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 572,693. The company has a market cap of $15.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. F5 has a 52 week low of $164.45 and a 52 week high of $313.00. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $264.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $263.01.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Empirical Finance LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 4.2% in the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,115 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $563,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in F5 by 33.5% in the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 22,261 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $5,927,000 after acquiring an additional 5,592 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in F5 during the first quarter valued at approximately $775,000. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in F5 during the first quarter worth $383,000. Finally, Drive Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 1st quarter valued at $205,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total value of $362,383.41. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,660 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,558,159.80. This represents a 6.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total transaction of $1,969,890.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 151,247 shares in the company, valued at $45,836,915.82. This trade represents a 4.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 15,805 shares of company stock worth $4,531,250 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

About F5

F5, Inc provides multi-cloud application security and delivery solutions in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. The company's distributed cloud services enable its customers to deploy, secure, and operate applications in any architecture, from on-premises to the public cloud.