William Blair Weighs in on F5’s Q2 Earnings (NASDAQ:FFIV)

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) – Equities researchers at William Blair lowered their Q2 2025 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of F5 in a report issued on Wednesday, January 29th. William Blair analyst J. Ader now expects that the network technology company will post earnings per share of $2.30 for the quarter, down from their previous forecast of $2.41. The consensus estimate for F5’s current full-year earnings is $11.15 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for F5’s Q3 2025 earnings at $2.75 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $3.02 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $11.13 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $11.90 EPS.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America increased their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.00.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $299.78 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $17.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $308.00. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $262.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $230.26.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in F5 by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,208,763,000 after purchasing an additional 191,020 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,187,222 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $701,825,000 after buying an additional 16,663 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $345,560,000 after acquiring an additional 117,080 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 24.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $90,090,000 after acquiring an additional 81,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its position in F5 by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 377,387 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $83,101,000 after acquiring an additional 27,124 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 4,093 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.33, for a total value of $1,188,320.69. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 27,264 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,915,557.12. This trade represents a 13.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $538,876.50. This trade represents a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,899 shares of company stock valued at $1,682,977 over the last quarter. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

About F5

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.