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

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) – Zacks Research reduced their Q2 2026 earnings estimates for F5 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, February 10th. Zacks Research analyst Team now expects that the network technology company will earn $2.44 per share for the quarter, down from their previous forecast 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.

FFIV has been the topic of a number of other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of F5 from $325.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Bank of America cut their price target on F5 from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings lowered F5 from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on F5 from $336.00 to $296.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Five investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $309.89.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $262.02 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.81 billion, a PE ratio of 21.67, a P/E/G ratio of 8.09 and a beta of 1.00. F5 has a 1-year low of $223.76 and a 1-year high of $346.00. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $266.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $285.37.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The network technology company reported $4.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.82. The company had revenue of $822.47 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $755.97 million. F5 had a return on equity of 22.08% and a net margin of 22.45%.The business’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.84 earnings per share. F5 has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 3.340-3.460 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 15.650-16.050 EPS.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $236.99, for a total transaction of $308,087.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 150,323 shares in the company, valued at $35,625,047.77. This trade represents a 0.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.11, for a total value of $310,376.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 8,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,041,517.10. This trade represents a 13.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 20,301 shares of company stock worth $5,204,053 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Alberta Investment Management Corp acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter valued at about $883,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in F5 by 17.4% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 9,622 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,832,000 after acquiring an additional 1,428 shares in the last quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd raised its position in F5 by 27.0% during the third quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd now owns 26,330 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $8,510,000 after acquiring an additional 5,600 shares in the last quarter. Candriam S.C.A. lifted its stake in F5 by 53.0% in the second quarter. Candriam S.C.A. now owns 5,204 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,532,000 after acquiring an additional 1,802 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Genus Capital Management Inc. grew its position in F5 by 91.9% in the second quarter. Genus Capital Management Inc. now owns 13,760 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,050,000 after acquiring an additional 6,590 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting F5

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong quarterly results and guidance — F5 reported a January-quarter revenue and EPS beat and issued FY‑26 guidance that underpins the bull case for margin and cash‑flow strength. MarketBeat FFIV coverage
• Positive Sentiment: Heavy institutional accumulation in Q4 — large new/additional stakes (Northwestern Mutual, Norges Bank, Deutsche Bank, UBS and others) suggest strong fund conviction that can provide a stabilizing holder base. MarketBeat FFIV coverage
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum narrative — third‑party writeups highlight F5’s multi‑cloud pipeline and product refresh as drivers for license/subscription growth. MSN: F5 multi-cloud coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest data shows anomalous zero values in recent daily snapshots (likely reporting glitches). Treat the zero figures with caution and rely on month‑end published short interest for positioning context.
• Negative Sentiment: Clustered insider selling — multiple senior executives filed Form 4s reporting sales (including EVP John Maddison and others). Even routine liquidity sales can unsettle the market when combined with other negative headlines. SEC Form 4 (Maddison)
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple securities‑law firms have filed or solicited lead‑plaintiff claims alleging misrepresentations and possible long‑term security issues (claims reference BIG‑IP exposures and alleged nation‑state infiltration). The February 17 lead‑plaintiff deadline increases near‑term litigation visibility and reputational risk. PRNewsWire: Class action filed GlobeNewswire: Hagens Berman 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.