Zacks Research Comments on F5’s Q2 Earnings (NASDAQ:FFIV)

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) – Equities researchers at Zacks Research dropped their Q2 2026 earnings estimates for F5 in a note issued to investors 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 prior estimate 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 posted its earnings results 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 net margin of 22.45% and a return on equity of 22.08%. The firm had revenue of $822.47 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $755.97 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.84 EPS. The company’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.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of F5 from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $295.00 to $345.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of F5 from $325.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, Evercore reissued a “cautious” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $309.89.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV opened at $273.93 on Friday. F5 has a one year low of $223.76 and a one year high of $346.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.42 and a beta of 1.00. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $266.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $285.17.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,297 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.32, for a total transaction of $360,981.04. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 8,060 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,243,259.20. The trade was a 13.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Kunal Anand sold 377 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.32, for a total value of $104,926.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 8,971 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,496,808.72. This represents a 4.03% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 20,301 shares of company stock valued at $5,204,053. 0.48% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,190 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $309,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. MGO One Seven LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 4,927 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,450,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the period. Pacific Sage Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Pacific Sage Partners LLC now owns 7,122 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,818,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its holdings in F5 by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 968 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $247,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its position in F5 by 0.6% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 7,386 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,387,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research raised several near‑term and multi‑year EPS forecasts for F5 (including FY2026–FY2028 and certain quarterly tweaks), which supports upside to consensus earnings expectations and helped sentiment. Zacks estimates summary
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional buying reported in Q4 (notable positions added by Northwestern Mutual, Norges Bank, Deutsche Bank and UBS) signals strong fund conviction and may underpin the share price. Institutional ownership details
• Positive Sentiment: F5’s January quarter earlier this year beat EPS and revenue estimates and management set FY26 guidance above some expectations — a fundamental driver supporting the recent rally. Quarterly results and guidance
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest reporting for mid‑February shows anomalous zero values in some feeds (likely a reporting glitch); treat the strange numbers cautiously and rely on the January short‑interest snapshot instead.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms have filed or are soliciting lead‑plaintiff claims in a securities class action alleging F5 misled investors about security issues in its BIG‑IP products (claims reference an alleged long‑term undetected intrusion). The Feb. 17 lead‑plaintiff deadline is driving a cluster of notices and heightening litigation risk and reputational uncertainty. Hagens Berman filing GlobeNewswire notice
• Negative Sentiment: Clustered insider selling disclosed Feb. 10 (including sales by the CTO and multiple EVPs) can spook investors even if sales are for diversification/liquidity — review the Form 4s for context. SEC Form 4

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.