Zacks Research Has Bearish Forecast for F5 Q4 Earnings

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) – Zacks Research reduced their Q4 2027 EPS estimates for F5 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, January 12th. Zacks Research analyst Team now anticipates that the network technology company will earn $3.49 per share for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $3.50. Zacks Research has a “Hold” rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for F5’s current full-year earnings is $11.20 per share.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on FFIV. Morgan Stanley lowered 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 note on Wednesday, December 17th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of F5 from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $315.00 to $325.00 in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Piper Sandler raised shares of F5 from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $277.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $294.22.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $269.81 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $250.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $289.16. The company has a market capitalization of $15.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.85, a PEG ratio of 8.62 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.43. The company had revenue of $810.09 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $794.06 million. F5 had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 21.76%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.67 EPS. F5 has set its FY 2026 guidance at 14.500-15.500 EPS and its Q1 2026 guidance at 3.350-3.850 EPS.

Institutional Trading of F5

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 275.0% during the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 90 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in F5 during the third quarter worth approximately $37,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in F5 by 288.1% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 163 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC purchased a new position in F5 during the second quarter worth approximately $45,000. Finally, CNB Bank acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at $49,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,110 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $263.79, for a total transaction of $292,806.90. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 13,623 shares in the company, valued at $3,593,611.17. This trade represents a 7.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,309 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.11, for a total value of $310,376.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 8,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,041,517.10. This represents a 13.20% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 31,595 shares of company stock valued at $7,858,505. Company 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: F5 advanced NGINXaaS for Google Cloud, highlighting product/partner momentum in cloud‑native app delivery and security — a revenue/market‑share positive if adoption follows. F5 NGINXaaS for Google Cloud Advances Cloud-Native Application Delivery and Security
• Neutral Sentiment: Zacks Research trimmed its Q4 2027 EPS estimate for F5 very slightly (from $3.50 to $3.49) and retains a “Hold” view; consensus full‑year EPS remains near $11.20 — a marginal analyst move unlikely to drive a large price swing on its own.
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short‑interest data in the filings is unclear/ambiguous (shows 0 shares / NaN change), so there’s no clear signal from short sellers in these entries.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms and notices have surfaced reminding investors of a securities class action related to F5’s disclosed “material cybersecurity incident” (class period Oct 28, 2024–Oct 27, 2025) and the company’s statements about adverse financial impact — this increases litigation risk and potential future costs or settlements. F5, Inc. Sued for Securities Law Violations – DJS Law Group
• Negative Sentiment: Firms including Hagens Berman, Kahn Swick & Foti, Rosen, Kirby McInerney, Bernstein Liebhard and others have posted notices/alerts and are soliciting lead‑plaintiff applicants — many reminders cite the cybersecurity incident and disclose Feb 17, 2026 deadlines for lead plaintiff applications, keeping legal pressure visible. Hagens Berman: Cybersecurity Incident-Related Securities Class Action Pending

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.