F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Upgraded at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has $345.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $295.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on FFIV. 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. 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. Zacks Research raised shares of F5 from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Evercore ISI restated a “cautious” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised F5 from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $277.00 to $295.00 in a research note 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 assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.78.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $268.22 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.55 and a beta of 0.98. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $252.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $288.67. F5 has a 12 month low of $223.76 and a 12 month high of $346.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.43. The firm had revenue of $810.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $794.06 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.76% and a net margin of 22.42%.F5’s revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.67 earnings per share. F5 has set its FY 2026 guidance at 14.500-15.500 EPS and its Q1 2026 guidance at 3.350-3.850 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that F5 will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 9,436 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.77, for a total transaction of $2,356,829.72. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 25,641 shares in the company, valued at $6,404,352.57. This trade represents a 26.90% 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 quarter, insiders sold 32,705 shares of company stock worth $8,152,655. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in F5 during the second quarter worth approximately $207,492,000. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec increased its holdings 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 worth $149,553,000 after buying an additional 290,828 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 422.7% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 347,125 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $112,187,000 after buying an additional 280,719 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in shares of F5 by 40.8% in the 2nd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 789,283 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $232,302,000 after buying an additional 228,790 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in F5 by 217.7% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 229,591 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $74,142,000 after acquiring an additional 157,318 shares during 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: J.P. Morgan upgraded F5 to “overweight” and raised its price target (to $345), a bullish analyst action that can support buying interest and offset some negative headlines. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum: F5 highlighted advances in AI/security and NGINXaaS for Google Cloud that support long‑term cloud adoption and recurring revenue potential (business growth catalyst). Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider selling: EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,110 shares on Jan. 12 (part of a series of periodic sales) — a disclosed sale investors often view as neutral-to-mildly negative absent further context. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst/estimate moves: Zacks and some research houses have trimmed near‑term estimates or ratings recently, signaling caution but not large downward revisions. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple plaintiff firms have filed or are soliciting plaintiffs in securities‑fraud suits tied to F5’s disclosed “material cybersecurity incident” (discovered Aug. 9, 2025) and subsequent revenue impacts; notices (Hagens Berman, Kuehn Law, Robbins, Rosen, Faruqi, Bragar, others) allege misstatements about security and seek lead‑plaintiff status (Feb. 17, 2026 deadline). Litigation risk, potential financial exposure, and reputational damage are the primary negative drivers today. Representative notices: Read More. Read More.

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.