Zacks Research Issues Pessimistic Estimate for F5 Earnings

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) – Equities research analysts at Zacks Research cut their Q2 2026 earnings per share estimates for F5 in a research note issued on Tuesday, February 10th. Zacks Research analyst Team now anticipates that the network technology company will post earnings per share of $2.44 for the quarter, down from their previous forecast of $2.48. Zacks Research has a “Hold” rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for F5’s current full-year earnings is $11.20 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for F5’s FY2026 earnings at $12.33 EPS, Q1 2027 earnings at $3.02 EPS, Q2 2027 earnings at $2.96 EPS, Q3 2027 earnings at $3.23 EPS, Q4 2027 earnings at $3.45 EPS, FY2027 earnings at $12.67 EPS, Q1 2028 earnings at $3.20 EPS and FY2028 earnings at $13.34 EPS.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 27th. The network technology company reported $4.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.63 by $0.82. F5 had a return on equity of 22.08% and a net margin of 22.45%.The business had revenue of $822.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $755.97 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter 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.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on FFIV. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $267.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of F5 from $336.00 to $296.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of F5 from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $325.00 price target (up from $295.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $309.89.

F5 Stock Down 7.3%

Shares of F5 stock opened at $262.02 on Friday. F5 has a 12-month low of $223.76 and a 12-month high of $346.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $266.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $285.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.67, a PEG ratio of 8.09 and a beta of 1.00.

Institutional Trading of F5

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 166.5% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 62,906 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $16,750,000 after purchasing an additional 39,305 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 1,281.4% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $257,000 after buying an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in F5 by 38.4% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 298,297 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $79,428,000 after buying an additional 82,835 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 1st quarter valued at $257,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 288.1% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 163 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, insider John Anthony Maddison sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.66, for a total value of $280,660.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 2,925 shares in the company, valued at $820,930.50. This trade represents a 25.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Kunal Anand sold 377 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.32, for a total transaction of $104,926.64. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 8,971 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,496,808.72. The trade was a 4.03% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 20,301 shares of company stock worth $5,204,053. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Trending Headlines about F5

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong quarterly results and guidance — F5 reported a January-quarter revenue and EPS beat and issued FY?26 guidance that underpins the bull case for margin and cash?flow strength. MarketBeat FFIV coverage
• Positive Sentiment: Heavy institutional accumulation in Q4 — large new/additional stakes (Northwestern Mutual, Norges Bank, Deutsche Bank, UBS and others) suggest strong fund conviction that can provide a stabilizing holder base. MarketBeat FFIV coverage
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum narrative — third?party writeups highlight F5’s multi?cloud pipeline and product refresh as drivers for license/subscription growth. MSN: F5 multi-cloud coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Short?interest data shows anomalous zero values in recent daily snapshots (likely reporting glitches). Treat the zero figures with caution and rely on month?end published short interest for positioning context.
• Negative Sentiment: Clustered insider selling — multiple senior executives filed Form 4s reporting sales (including EVP John Maddison and others). Even routine liquidity sales can unsettle the market when combined with other negative headlines. SEC Form 4 (Maddison)
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple securities?law firms have filed or solicited lead?plaintiff claims alleging misrepresentations and possible long?term security issues (claims reference BIG?IP exposures and alleged nation?state infiltration). The February 17 lead?plaintiff deadline increases near?term litigation visibility and reputational risk. PRNewsWire: Class action filed GlobeNewswire: Hagens Berman notice

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.