Zacks Research Issues Positive Outlook for F5 Earnings

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) – Stock analysts at Zacks Research increased their Q1 2025 earnings per share estimates for F5 in a research note issued on Monday, November 11th. Zacks Research analyst A. Bhagat now expects that the network technology company will post earnings of $2.58 per share for the quarter, up from their prior estimate of $2.57. The consensus estimate for F5’s current full-year earnings is $10.99 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for F5’s Q2 2025 earnings at $2.43 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $2.75 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $10.85 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $2.92 EPS, Q4 2026 earnings at $3.10 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $11.45 EPS.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on FFIV. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $246.86 on Thursday. F5 has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $250.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.82, a PEG ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $221.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $193.34.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.76 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in F5 by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,465,022 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,415,294,000 after buying an additional 29,154 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in F5 by 10.5% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $294,392,000 after acquiring an additional 162,820 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 6,700.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $146,118,000 after purchasing an additional 835,912 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 48.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $111,932,000 after purchasing an additional 214,351 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 14.2% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 625,734 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $118,607,000 after purchasing an additional 77,611 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total value of $98,365.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,125 shares in the company, valued at $6,123,221.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total transaction of $98,365.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,125 shares in the company, valued at $6,123,221.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 4,250 shares of company stock worth $897,594. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

F5 Company Profile

F5, Inc provides multi-cloud application security and delivery solutions in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. The company’s distributed cloud services enable its customers to deploy, secure, and operate applications in any architecture, from on-premises to the public cloud.