Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Hold” Rating for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV)

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

Several other analysts have also commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of F5 from $336.00 to $296.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Bank of America lowered their target price on F5 from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Monday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded F5 from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $295.00 to $345.00 in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of F5 from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $309.89.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV opened at $282.53 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.05 billion, a PE ratio of 23.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.17 and a beta of 0.98. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $258.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $286.89. F5 has a 52-week low of $223.76 and a 52-week high of $346.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The network technology company reported $4.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.82. The business had revenue of $822.47 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $755.97 million. F5 had a net margin of 22.45% and a return on equity of 22.08%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $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. Research analysts forecast that F5 will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 8,318 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.78, for a total transaction of $2,077,670.04. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 22,493 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,618,301.54. This trade represents a 27.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,309 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.11, for a total transaction of $310,376.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 37,158 shares of company stock worth $9,319,717 in the last 90 days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in F5 by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,357,293 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,878,023,000 after acquiring an additional 114,533 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,226,326 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,042,716,000 after purchasing an additional 53,712 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 3.8% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,741,117 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $511,016,000 after purchasing an additional 64,420 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 1.2% during the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,634,361 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $528,209,000 after purchasing an additional 18,806 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG boosted its position in shares of F5 by 141.2% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,023,869 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $261,353,000 after buying an additional 599,384 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

More F5 News

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 results and guidance: F5 reported stronger-than-expected Q1 results (EPS and revenue beat) and raised Q2 and FY26 EPS guidance, which drove earlier upside and supports the revenue/AI momentum narrative. Q1 Results / Guidance
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upside: RBC Capital raised its price target to $345 (outperform), and other firms raised targets or reiterated coverage after the results — these upgrades add upside conviction for some investors. RBC PT Raise
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks upgrade: Zacks moved FFIV to a #1 (Strong Buy), reinforcing post‑earnings optimism among some retail/quant investors. Zacks Upgrade
• Neutral Sentiment: Modest analyst caution: Barclays raised its target slightly but kept an equal‑weight rating, and some analysts highlight valuation/operational risks despite the beat. Barclays Note
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider selling: An F5 EVP sold several thousand shares in January (Form 4 filed). Routine liquidity vs. signal debate — monitored by investors. SEC Form 4
• Neutral Sentiment: Street commentary: Post‑earnings writeups highlight strong systems/product demand and AI/regulatory tailwinds but flag margin pressure and competitive risks — mixed implications for near‑term flows. Seeking Alpha Analysis
• Negative Sentiment: Legal overhang: Numerous law firms (Hagens Berman, Rosen, Robbins Geller, others) have issued investor notices and are soliciting plaintiffs in securities‑class actions tied to an alleged F5 security incident; the approaching Feb. 17 lead‑plaintiff deadline creates tangible litigation and reputational risk that can pressure the stock. Hagens Berman Alert Rosen Notice

About F5

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.