Zacks Research Has Bullish Forecast for F5 FY2026 Earnings

Key Points

• Zacks Research raised its FY2026 earnings estimate for F5 to $12.80 per share from $12.33, slightly above the current consensus of $12.71, signaling improved near-term expectations.
• The firm also lifted its longer-term forecasts, including FY2027 EPS to $13.02 and FY2028 EPS to $13.48, suggesting confidence in continued profit growth.
• F5 recently beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, reporting $3.90 EPS on $811.7 million in revenue, while management guided FY2026 EPS to 16.25-16.55, well above analyst forecasts.

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) - Stock analysts at Zacks Research raised their FY2026 earnings estimates for shares of F5 in a report issued on Tuesday, May 12th. Zacks Research analyst Team now anticipates that the network technology company will post earnings of $12.80 per share for the year, up from their previous forecast of $12.33. The consensus estimate for F5's current full-year earnings is $12.71 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for F5's Q4 2026 earnings at $3.22 EPS, Q1 2027 earnings at $3.23 EPS, Q2 2027 earnings at $2.92 EPS, Q3 2027 earnings at $3.35 EPS, Q4 2027 earnings at $3.52 EPS, FY2027 earnings at $13.02 EPS, Q1 2028 earnings at $3.25 EPS, Q2 2028 earnings at $3.22 EPS and FY2028 earnings at $13.48 EPS.

FFIV has been the subject of a number of other reports. Barclays boosted their target price on F5 from $283.00 to $292.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on F5 from $355.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings raised F5 from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Five 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 data from MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $316.44.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV stock opened at $364.59 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.57 billion, a PE ratio of 29.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.27 and a beta of 1.00. The company's 50-day moving average is $305.38 and its 200-day moving average is $276.09. F5 has a 1 year low of $223.76 and a 1 year high of $365.53.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.47 by $0.43. F5 had a net margin of 21.96% and a return on equity of 21.50%. The business had revenue of $811.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $783.82 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.42 earnings per share. F5's revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.910-4.030 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 16.250-16.550 EPS.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Edward Cooper Werner sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.00, for a total value of $525,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 2,906 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,017,100. This represents a 34.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,783 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 2.51% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 29,328 shares of company stock worth $9,319,571. Company insiders own 0.48% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 51.7% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 310,368 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $100,308,000 after acquiring an additional 105,738 shares during the last quarter. Convergence Investment Partners LLC boosted its position in F5 by 128.1% in the third quarter. Convergence Investment Partners LLC now owns 7,931 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,563,000 after purchasing an additional 4,454 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in F5 by 217.7% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 229,591 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $74,142,000 after purchasing an additional 157,318 shares during the period. Alberta Investment Management Corp grew its stake in F5 by 173.3% in the 3rd quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 8,200 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $2,650,000 after purchasing an additional 5,200 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of F5 by 11.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 381,350 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $123,249,000 after purchasing an additional 39,445 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

F5 News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research raised F5’s FY2026 EPS estimate to $12.80 from $12.33, above the current consensus of $12.71, reinforcing expectations for continued earnings strength.
• Positive Sentiment: The firm also lifted FY2027 EPS estimates to $13.02 from $12.67 and FY2028 EPS estimates to $13.48 from $13.34, signaling confidence in longer-term profit growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts increased several quarterly forecasts, including Q1 2027, Q3 2027, Q4 2027, Q1 2028, and Q2 2028, indicating a broadly more favorable earnings trajectory for F5.
• Neutral Sentiment: One estimate was trimmed for Q2 2027 EPS to $2.92 from $2.96, but the change was modest and offset by upgrades in other periods.
• Neutral Sentiment: Another recent article suggests F5’s earnings and cash flow may be “better than they seem,” adding to the constructive narrative, though it does not appear to include a major new company announcement.

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.

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.