F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Rating Cut to “Hold” at Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research lowered shares of F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Zacks reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on FFIV. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on F5 from $525.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company set a $500.00 price target on F5 in a research report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on F5 from $415.00 to $448.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler downgraded F5 from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $461.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $443.00.

F5 Trading Down 0.6%

F5 stock opened at $363.46 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $20.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.03. F5 has a 1 year low of $223.76 and a 1 year high of $483.30. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $429.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $362.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a current ratio of 1.73.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.42 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.26 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $917.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $884.03 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.00% and a net margin of 21.14%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $4.39 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that F5 will post 14.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, October 27th that permits the company to buy back $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Share buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,782 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $412.44, for a total transaction of $1,559,848.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 146,989 shares in the company, 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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Thomas Fountain sold 1,208 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.63, for a total value of $500,873.04. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 8,060 shares in the company, valued at $3,341,917.80. The trade was a 13.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 12,829 shares of company stock valued at $5,259,502. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in F5 during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,611,637,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in F5 in the second quarter valued at approximately $243,865,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new stake in F5 in the second quarter valued at approximately $208,277,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in F5 in the second quarter worth approximately $205,453,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG bought a new stake in F5 in the second quarter worth approximately $172,297,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Key F5 News

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5 reported strong quarterly results, helped by a 29% increase in systems revenue, and management cited accelerating artificial-intelligence demand. The company expects fiscal 2027 revenue growth of approximately 8% to 9%. FFIV Q4 Earnings Beat Estimates on Strong Systems Growth
• Positive Sentiment: F5 announced a new collaboration with Oracle to strengthen application security for AI-era workloads, potentially supporting its long-term growth strategy. F5 and Oracle Collaborate to Strengthen Application Security in the AI Era
• Positive Sentiment: The board authorized a share repurchase program, which could support per-share results and signal confidence in the company’s valuation. Share Buyback Program Announced by F5 Board
• Neutral Sentiment: Several analysts raised their price targets, including Morgan Stanley to $448, Barclays to $428 and RBC to $540. However, Morgan Stanley and Barclays maintained “equal weight” ratings, while Wolfe Research downgraded F5 from “strong buy” to “hold,” reflecting mixed views on near-term upside.
• Negative Sentiment: The primary pressure is fiscal 2027 guidance: slower growth and lower margins suggest that the hardware-refresh cycle may be peaking, while higher AI-related spending could weigh on profitability. Investors therefore sold the stock despite the earnings beat. F5 Plunges on Fiscal 2027 Revenue Outlook

About F5

F5, Inc (NASDAQ: FFIV) provides application delivery, security and traffic management solutions for enterprises, service providers and public-sector organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers secure, optimize and manage applications and application programming interfaces (APIs) across data centers, private and public clouds, and edge environments.

The company’s portfolio includes BIG-IP software and appliances, NGINX application delivery and web server technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud services.