F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Releases FY 2026 Earnings Guidance

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) issued an update on its FY 2026 earnings guidance on Tuesday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of 15.650-16.050 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of 13.810. The company issued revenue guidance of $3.2 billion-$3.3 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $3.2 billion. F5 also updated its Q2 2026 guidance to 3.340-3.460 EPS.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $270.43 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $256.24 and its 200 day moving average price is $286.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.71 billion, a PE ratio of 22.90, a P/E/G ratio of 8.39 and a beta of 0.98. F5 has a 1-year low of $223.76 and a 1-year high of $346.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its 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. F5 had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 21.76%. The company had revenue of $822.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $755.97 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.84 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 3.340-3.460 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 15.650-16.050 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that F5 will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FFIV has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI reissued a “cautious” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of F5 from $336.00 to $296.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of F5 from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $315.00 to $325.00 in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.78.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 8,318 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.78, for a total value of $2,077,670.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 22,493 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,618,301.54. This represents a 27.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,309 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.11, for a total value of $310,376.99. Following the transaction, the director owned 8,610 shares in the company, valued at $2,041,517.10. This trade represents a 13.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,815 shares of company stock valued at $8,444,286. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting F5

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 results materially beat expectations: revenue of roughly $822M and EPS around $4.45 topped consensus on both top and bottom lines, showing mid-single-digit revenue growth and stronger margins — the core reason for the rally. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised FY26 and Q2 guidance well above Street consensus (FY EPS guide ~15.65–16.05 vs. ~13.81 consensus; Q2 EPS guide ~3.34–3.46 and revenue guidance also lifted), signaling confidence in demand and margin execution. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial drivers cited on the call and in coverage: accelerating adoption of application-security, AI-related traffic management, and hybrid/multi-cloud deployments — structural demand that supports higher revenue and the upgraded guidance. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market reaction: reports show the stock rallied sharply in extended trading after the report, reflecting the beats and guidance — useful context for intraday positioning but not a fundamental change by itself. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation / investor debate: analysts and outlets are re-checking fair value given the new guidance and secular AI/multi-cloud tailwinds—watch forward multiples and the PEG ratio as the Street updates models. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Full disclosure and color are available in the earnings-call transcript and slide deck for modeling assumptions and segment-level detail. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Legal overhang: multiple law firms have filed or are soliciting lead plaintiff applications in securities class actions related to an August 2025 cybersecurity incident and alleged disclosure shortfalls — this litigation risk could pressure the stock and create settlement/defense costs down the line. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple firms (Hagens Berman, Rosen, Pomerantz, others) are publicizing investigations and deadlines — even if earnings momentum is strong, legal uncertainty increases downside risk and could affect guidance credibility or require reserve adjustments. Read More.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in F5 by 1.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,226,326 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,042,716,000 after purchasing an additional 53,712 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,017,715 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $328,915,000 after purchasing an additional 25,052 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 839,648 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $271,366,000 after buying an additional 32,970 shares during the period. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec grew its stake in shares of F5 by 169.2% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec now owns 462,740 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $149,553,000 after buying an additional 290,828 shares during the period. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 424,485 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $137,189,000 after buying an additional 14,539 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.