F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Receives “Hold” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their hold rating on shares of F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) in a research note published on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Evercore ISI reiterated a “cautious” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $325.00 price target (up from $295.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America lowered their price objective on F5 from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised F5 from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $315.00 to $325.00 in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of F5 in a report on Monday, December 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $309.89.

F5 Stock Up 8.1%

F5 stock opened at $292.30 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $16.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.75, a P/E/G ratio of 8.48 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a fifty day moving average of $257.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $286.92. F5 has a twelve month low of $223.76 and a twelve month high of $346.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly 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 return on equity of 22.20% and a net margin of 22.45%.The firm had revenue of $822.47 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $755.97 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.84 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 analysts expect that F5 will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 3,343 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $261.87, for a total value of $875,431.41. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 8,060 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,110,672.20. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,309 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.11, for a total transaction of $310,376.99. Following the sale, the director owned 8,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,041,517.10. The trade was a 13.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 37,158 shares of company stock worth $9,319,717. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 166.5% during the 1st 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 grew its position in F5 by 1,281.4% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $257,000 after buying an additional 897 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in F5 by 38.4% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the first quarter worth about $257,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake 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 in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting F5

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5 beat Q1 expectations and raised guidance — reported $4.45 EPS vs. ~$3.63 consensus and $822.5M revenue vs. ~$756M; company raised FY26 EPS guidance to 15.65–16.05 and Q2 EPS to 3.34–3.46, driving the rally. Press Release
• Positive Sentiment: RBC Capital raised its price target to $345 and maintained an outperform rating — implies meaningful upside (~18% from recent levels) and supports further upside momentum. RBC PT Raise
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks upgraded FFIV to a #1 (Strong Buy), adding sell-side optimism to the post-earnings momentum. Zacks Upgrade
• Neutral Sentiment: Barclays raised its price target modestly to $283 but kept an equal-weight rating — a mild offset to bullish activity. Barclays Note
• Neutral Sentiment: An F5 EVP sold 3,343 shares at ~$261.87 (SEC Form 4 filed). Insider sales can be neutral/benign but are monitored by investors. SEC Form 4
• Neutral Sentiment: Post-earnings commentary (e.g., Seeking Alpha) points to strong systems/product demand and AI tailwinds but also flags margin pressure from memory costs and competitive/operational risks — suggests a wait-on-valuation posture for some investors. Seeking Alpha Analysis
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms have issued investor alerts and are soliciting plaintiffs in securities-class actions tied to a prior material cybersecurity incident and an earlier stock decline; deadlines to seek lead-plaintiff status are approaching — this raises legal and reputational risk that could weigh on the stock. Hagens Berman Alert Rosen Notice

F5 Company Profile

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.