# F5, Inc. (FFIV)

> Source: Nexqual · https://nexqual.com/FFIV · data as of 2026-10-22 20:00 UTC · cite as "Nexqual, F5, Inc. (FFIV), nexqual.com/FFIV" · informational, not investment advice.

**Price:** USD 450.08 (-1.86% on the day) · last close of Oct 22, 2026; US market pre market, not a live price. Prev close 458.59 · day 445.72–457.7 · 52w 223.76–483.3 · market cap $25.5B · NMS

## Key facts
- Last four reported quarters (through Jun 30, 2026): revenue $3.31B, net income $727M (22.0% margin), free cash flow $970M (SEC filings).
- Valuation: P/E 35.1x (avg 25.0x at the last 3 fiscal year-ends).
- 2 of 80 tracked superinvestors hold FFIV (13F, Q2 2026): 1 new, 0 added, 1 reduced, 0 unchanged.
- Insider open-market sales, last ~7 months: 21 Form 4 filings, $14.7M; 2 not under a Rule 10b5-1 plan ($2.0M); 0 by opportunistic insiders, 7 by routine insiders (three-year test, Cohen, Malloy & Pomorski 2012).
- Analysts: Hold (mean 2.54 on a 1–5 scale) (13 analysts), mean target USD 437.8 (range 300–525).
- Total return with dividends: 1Y +49.1% vs S&P 500 +14.9%; 5Y +116.1% vs S&P 500 +80.3%.
- Next earnings: 2026-10-27, EPS estimate USD 4.26, revenue estimate $885M.

## Financials (SEC 10-K; TTM = last four 10-Q/10-K quarters)
| USD | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 | TTM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $2.60B | $2.70B | $2.81B | $2.82B | $3.09B | $3.31B |
| Gross profit | $2.11B | $2.16B | $2.22B | $2.26B | $2.51B | — |
| Operating income | $394M | $404M | $473M | $659M | $766M | $812M |
| Net income | $331M | $322M | $395M | $567M | $692M | $727M |
| EPS (diluted) | $5.34 | $5.27 | $6.55 | $9.55 | $11.80 | — |
| Free cash flow | $615M | $409M | $599M | $762M | $906M | $970M |
| Gross margin | 81.1% | 80.0% | 78.9% | 80.2% | 81.4% | — |
| Operating margin | 15.1% | 15.0% | 16.8% | 23.4% | 24.8% | 24.5% |
| Net margin | 12.7% | 12.0% | 14.0% | 20.1% | 22.4% | 22.0% |
| Revenue growth | +10.7% | +3.6% | +4.4% | +0.1% | +9.7% | — |
| Cash + short-term investments | $911M | $885M | $803M | $1.07B | $1.34B | — |
| Total debt | $369M | $350M | — | — | — | — |
Fiscal years end Sep. EPS is split-adjusted.

## Valuation (price ÷ last four quarters, through Jun 30, 2026)
P/E 35.1x · P/S 7.7x · P/FCF 26.3x · P/B 6.6x · FCF yield 3.80% · Earnings yield 2.85%
P/E at fiscal year-ends: Sep 2025 27.4x, Sep 2024 23.1x, Sep 2023 24.6x.

## Superinvestors (SEC 13F-HR, Q2 2026)
2 of 80 tracked investors hold FFIV. Each row is the investor's latest 13F; change is vs their prior-quarter share count.
| Investor | Firm | % of portfolio | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jensen Investment Management |  | 0.08% | $3.1M | Reduced -43.9% |
| Lee Ainslie | Maverick Capital | 0.01% | $653K | New position |

## Insider sales (SEC Form 4, open-market, last ~7 months)
19 of 21 under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan (scheduled in advance). Unplanned sales were timed by the insider.
| Trade date | Insider | Role | Shares | Value | % of holdings sold | 10b5-1 plan | Insider type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-14 | Montoya Michael F | Chief Technology Ops Officer | 4,426 | $1.8M | 77.2% | Yes | Too little history (no open-market trades in 2023–2025) |
| 2026-09-14 | Maddison John Anthony | Chief Product Mkting Officer | 204 | $83K | 15.1% | Yes | Too little history (no open-market trades in 2023–2025) |
| 2026-08-05 | Fountain Thomas Dean | EVP Global Services & Strategy | 1,208 | $501K | 13% | Yes | Routine (sold in Feb & May & Aug & Nov each year 2023–2025) |
| 2026-08-05 | Locoh-Donou Francois | President, CEO & Director | 3,782 | $1.6M | 2.5% | Yes | Routine (sold in Mar & Apr & May & Jun & Jul & Aug & Sep & Oct & Nov each year 2023–2025) |
| 2026-08-03 | Whalen Chad Michael | EVP, Worldwide Sales | 703 | $285K | 3.2% | Yes | Routine (sold in Aug & Nov each year 2023–2025) |
| 2026-08-03 | Werner Edward Cooper | Chief Financial Officer | 599 | $243K | 59.6% | Yes | Too little history (no open-market trades in 2023–2025) |
| 2026-08-03 | Okeke Angelique M | EVP, General Counsel | 515 | $208K | 18.7% | Yes | Too little history (no open-market trades in 2023–2025) |
| 2026-08-03 | Maddison John Anthony | Chief Product Mkting Officer | 1,000 | $406K | 42.5% | Yes | Too little history (no open-market trades in 2023–2025) |
| 2026-08-03 | Anand Kunal | Chief Technology Officer | 392 | $159K | 3% | Yes | Too little history (no open-market trades in 2023–2025) |
| 2026-07-30 | Mehta Nikhil Ramesh | Director | 4,000 | $1.6M | 36.2% | No | Too little history (no open-market trades in 2023–2025) |
| 2026-06-10 | Buse Elizabeth | Director | 1,000 | $399K | 16.8% | No | Too little history (no open-market trades in 2023 or 2024) |
| 2026-06-02 | Werner Edward Cooper | Chief Financial Officer | 2,500 | $1.0M | 86% | Yes | Too little history (no open-market trades in 2023–2025) |
| 2026-05-08 | Whalen Chad Michael | EVP, Worldwide Sales | 6,200 | $2.2M | 22.9% | Yes | Routine (sold in Aug & Nov each year 2023–2025; this trade is outside those months) |
| 2026-05-08 | Werner Edward Cooper | Chief Financial Officer | 1,500 | $525K | 34% | Yes | Too little history (no open-market trades in 2023–2025) |
| 2026-05-05 | Locoh-Donou Francois | President, CEO & Director | 3,783 | $1.3M | 2% | Yes | Routine (sold in Mar & Apr & May & Jun & Jul & Aug & Sep & Oct & Nov each year 2023–2025) |
| 2026-05-05 | Fountain Thomas Dean | EVP Global Services & Strategy | 1,328 | $439K | 14.1% | Yes | Routine (sold in Feb & May & Aug & Nov each year 2023–2025) |
| 2026-05-04 | Whalen Chad Michael | EVP, Worldwide Sales | 704 | $233K | 2.5% | Yes | Routine (sold in Aug & Nov each year 2023–2025; this trade is outside those months) |
| 2026-05-04 | Werner Edward Cooper | Chief Financial Officer | 599 | $193K | 12% | Yes | Too little history (no open-market trades in 2023–2025) |
| 2026-05-04 | Okeke Angelique M | EVP, General Counsel | 842 | $271K | 28.5% | Yes | Too little history (no open-market trades in 2023–2025) |
| 2026-05-04 | Maddison John Anthony | Chief Product Mkting Officer | 1,000 | $322K | 31.8% | Yes | Too little history (no open-market trades in 2023–2025) |
% of holdings sold = shares sold ÷ (shares sold + all holdings the insider reported on that Form 4, direct and through trusts).
Insider type follows Cohen, Malloy & Pomorski (Journal of Finance, 2012). An insider who traded the stock in the same calendar month in each of the past three years is a routine trader; one who traded in each of those years without such a pattern is an opportunistic trader. In their study, trades by opportunistic insiders predicted future returns and trades by routine insiders did not. Counts open-market purchases and sales only (SEC Form 4 codes P and S) by that insider in that company. Not investment advice.

## Analysts
Consensus Hold (mean 2.54 on a 1–5 scale), 13 analysts; mean target USD 437.8 (low 300, high 525).
Rating changes, last 120 days:
| Date | Firm | Action | Rating | Price target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-12 | RBC Capital | Target raised | Outperform | $508 → $525 |
| 2026-07-28 | Morgan Stanley | Target raised | Equal-Weight | $380 → $415 |
| 2026-07-28 | Piper Sandler | Target raised | Overweight | $423 → $461 |
| 2026-07-28 | JP Morgan | Target raised | Overweight | $500 → $515 |
| 2026-07-28 | Barclays | Target raised | Equal-Weight | $386 → $397 |

## Total return (dividends reinvested)
|  | 1Y (from 2025-10-23) | 5Y (from 2021-10-18) |
|---|---|---|
| Total return | +49.1% | +116.1% |
| S&P 500 (SPY) | +14.9% | +80.3% |
| Per year | +49.3% | +16.6% |
| Volatility (annualized) | 35.1% | 28.0% |
| Max drawdown | -25.8% (Oct 2025→Nov 2025) | -45.6% (Dec 2021→May 2023) |

## Peers (Software - Infrastructure)
IOT (Samsara Inc.) USD 43.78 +1.25% · CPAY (Corpay, Inc.) USD 415.01 +1.83% · RBRK (Rubrik, Inc.) USD 120.75 +0.31% · VRSN (VeriSign, Inc.) USD 304.59 -0.87% · MDB (MongoDB, Inc.) USD 362.24 -7.30% · CRWV (CoreWeave, Inc.) USD 55.6 -10.06%

## More
Full page: https://nexqual.com/FFIV · Free keyless MCP server with the same data and citations: https://mcp.nexqual.com/mcp · Guide for agents: https://nexqual.com/agents · https://nexqual.com/llms.txt

## Supply chain and relationships (SEC annual reports)

Named in FFIV's own 10-K filed 2025-11-25 (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000104869525000157/ffiv-20250930.htm):

| Relationship | Company | Sentence in the filing |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier | Flex (FLEX) | "We outsource the manufacturing of our products to various manufacturing partners, including our primary third-party manufacturer service provider, Flex Ltd. ("Flex"), to manufacture our hardware systems according to our …" |
| Partner | Amazon (AMZN) | "We have ongoing partnerships with the major cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform and have expanded our reseller routes to market to include their public cloud marketplaces." |
| Partner | Alphabet (Google) (GOOGL) | "We have ongoing partnerships with the major cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform and have expanded our reseller routes to market to include their public cloud marketplaces." |
| Partner | Microsoft (MSFT) | "We have ongoing partnerships with the major cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform and have expanded our reseller routes to market to include their public cloud marketplaces." |
| Competitor | Broadcom (AVGO) | "Our F5 BIG-IP offerings compete against Citrix and Broadcom." |
| Competitor | Cisco (CSCO) | "In application security, we compete with vendors that offer web application firewall, bot detection and mitigation, API protection, carrier-grade firewall, carrier-grade network address translation ("NAT"), SSL orchestra…" |

## Revenue by product line (quarter ended 2026-06-30)

| Line | Revenue | Share | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product | $462.8M | 53.5% | +19.0% |
| Service | $402.2M | 46.5% | +2.7% |
| Total revenue | $865.1M | 100% | — |

## Revenue by region (quarter ended 2026-06-30)

| Line | Revenue | Share | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Americas | $478.6M | 55.3% | +11.0% |
| — United States (part of Total Americas) | $454.0M | 52.5% | +10.4% |
| — Other Americas (part of Total Americas) | $24.6M | 2.8% | +23.6% |
| EMEA | $256.0M | 29.6% | +26.7% |
| APAC | $130.5M | 15.1% | -11.4% |
| Total revenue | $865.1M | 100% | — |

## Customer concentration

Period ended 2026-06-30: 18.4%, 16.4% of revenue from unnamed direct customers (10-Q, filed 2026-08-06).

## Company outlook (8-K filed 2026-07-27)

- "F5 raised its outlook for its fiscal year 2026, guiding for revenue growth of approximately 9% to 10%, up from 7% to 8% previously."
- "F5 expects non-GAAP earnings per share in a range of $17.21 to $17.33, up from $16.25 to $16.55 previously."
- "F5 is unable to provide a reconciliation of non-GAAP earnings guidance measures to corresponding U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP measures on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable effort due to the overall high variability and low visibility of most of the foregoing items that have been excluded."
- "Q3 FY26 Earnings Release Page 3 of 5 Live Webcast and Conference Call F5 will host a live webcast to review its financial results and outlook today, July 27, 2026, at 4:30 pm ET."

## Analyst estimates and revisions

| Period | EPS est. | 90d ago | Change | Revenue est. | Analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current quarter (ends 2026-09-30) | $4.26 | $4.14 | +2.7% | $885.1M | 12 |
| Next quarter (ends 2026-12-31) | $4.36 | $4.33 | +0.7% | $873.3M | 12 |
| Current fiscal year (ends 2026-09-30) | $17.33 | $16.49 | +5.1% | $3.38B | 13 |
| Next fiscal year (ends 2027-09-30) | $18.08 | $17.68 | +2.2% | $3.64B | 13 |