F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) have been given an average rating of “Hold” by the eleven analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $416.6250.

FFIV has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Zacks Research downgraded F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Evercore raised F5 from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $475.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on F5 from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $461.00 price target (up from $423.00) on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, July 28th.

F5 News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks raised earnings estimates across multiple periods. The firm increased its FY2026 EPS forecast to $13.59 from $12.80, FY2027 to $13.77 from $13.02, and FY2028 to $16.16 from $13.48. It also lifted estimates for several individual quarters, including Q4 2026, Q1 and Q3 2027, and Q1 through Q3 2028. The revisions indicate improving expectations for F5’s profitability and are above the current-year consensus estimate of $13.53. Zacks Research Forecasts F5’s Q2 Earnings
• Neutral Sentiment: The estimate increases are concentrated in future periods. Although Zacks raised its Q2 2028 EPS forecast to $3.79 from $3.22 and its Q3 2028 forecast to $4.17 from $3.46, these revisions may have less impact on near-term trading than changes to current-quarter guidance or results.
• Negative Sentiment: Zacks maintained a Hold rating. The lack of an upgrade may temper investor enthusiasm, particularly after F5’s strong run toward its 52-week high. At a valuation of roughly 32 times earnings, investors may be looking for stronger near-term catalysts before assigning the stock a higher multiple.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $403.20 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.10, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 1.03. F5 has a 52-week low of $223.76 and a 52-week high of $435.00. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $404.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $344.58.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.00 by $0.73. F5 had a net margin of 21.95% and a return on equity of 21.54%. The firm had revenue of $865.08 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $834.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $4.16 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that F5 will post 13.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,782 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.44, for a total value of $1,559,848.08. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 146,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,624,143.16. The trade was a 2.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Kunal Anand sold 392 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $404.63, for a total transaction of $158,614.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 12,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,092,673.18. The trade was a 3.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 15,699 shares of company stock valued at $6,316,411 in the last three months. 0.48% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. bought a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 109.8% in the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the period. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 963.6% in the first quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 117 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 113.8% during the 1st quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 124 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

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.