F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Reaches New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Posted by Stanley Muller on Sep 16th, 2026

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV – Get Free Report) shares reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $435.45 and last traded at $431.3650, with a volume of 28745 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $430.88.

Key F5 News

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

Positive Sentiment: AI bot-defense enhancements: F5 added device intelligence and specialized agentic-AI detection to its Distributed Cloud Bot Defense platform. The tools are intended to identify automated account abuse, maintain persistent device context and continuously assess risk, strengthening F5’s offering as cyber threats become more sophisticated. F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense announcement
Positive Sentiment: Potential AI security growth opportunity: Coverage of F5’s broader AI-security push points to new guardrails and defenses designed to help enterprises manage AI-related fraud, security and governance risks. Investors may see this as a potential source of product differentiation and longer-term customer expansion. F5 adds AI guardrails and bot defenses
Neutral Sentiment: Analyst expectations are mixed: Brokerages have an average target price of $416.62 and a consensus rating of “Hold.” The target suggests analysts remain cautious about valuation and near-term upside, despite F5’s strong latest quarter, when revenue rose 10.9% year over year and earnings exceeded estimates. F5 average analyst target price
Negative Sentiment: Senior executive selling: CTO Michael Montoya sold 4,426 shares, reducing his direct stake by approximately 77%, while John Maddison sold 204 shares. Both sales were made under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans, which reduces their value as a bearish signal, but the transactions may still weigh modestly on investor sentiment. F5 insider stock sales

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on FFIV shares. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded F5 from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Zacks Research lowered F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Weiss Ratings raised F5 from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on F5 from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $416.62.

View Our Latest Analysis on F5

F5 Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $23.87 billion, a PE ratio of 33.58, a P/E/G ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 1.03. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $403.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $363.13.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.00 by $0.73. F5 had a return on equity of 21.54% and a net margin of 21.95%.The firm had revenue of $865.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $834.60 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.16 earnings per share. F5’s revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 13.65 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, insider John Maddison sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $405.85, for a total transaction of $405,850.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 1,353 shares in the company, valued at approximately $549,115.05. This represents a 42.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Michael Montoya sold 4,426 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.16, for a total transaction of $1,815,368.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $536,899.44. This trade represents a 77.18% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 16,829 shares of company stock valued at $6,815,302. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in F5 by 14.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 22,144 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $9,211,000 after buying an additional 2,814 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service lifted its stake in F5 by 10.5% in the second quarter. National Pension Service now owns 14,091 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,861,000 after buying an additional 1,341 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the second quarter valued at approximately $459,000. Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of F5 by 9.8% during the second quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,536 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,887,000 after acquiring an additional 405 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP grew its position in shares of F5 by 419.3% during the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 779 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $324,000 after acquiring an additional 629 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About F5

(Get Free Report)

F5, Inc is a technology company that provides application delivery, security and traffic-management solutions for enterprises, service providers and government organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers ensure the availability, performance and security of applications across on-premises data centers, 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.