F5 (FFIV)
Information Technology · $25.2B market cap · SEC CIK 0001048695
fundamentals score out of 100
Next reports on Oct 26, 2026, after the close, with analysts expecting $4.34 in earnings per share.
The case for FFIV
- Generated $906M of free cash flow in FY2025, 29% of revenue.
- 22% of revenue drops through to net profit.
- Revenue growing 9.4% year over year.
- Return on equity of 20%.
- Carries essentially no debt.
- Gross margin of 82% absorbs cost shocks.
The case against
- Pricey at 34.7× earnings, against a long-run market average nearer 20×.
- Priced at 7.6× sales with revenue growing only 9.4%.
- Growth is weak (38/100): revenue +9.4%, EPS +10.7%, +5.6% a year over five years.
What the score is made of
Each factor is half a curve over reported figures and half a rank among the other Information Technology companies (momentum is judged against fixed thresholds only), and the five are blended by weight. It describes the last filing and the current price. It is not a forecast.
| Valuewhat you pay for the earnings, sales, assets and cash | 47 |
|---|---|
| Growthhow fast revenue and earnings are moving, this year and over five | 38 |
| Profitabilityhow much of the revenue becomes profit, and how much of that is cash | 71 |
| Momentumhow the price has behaved lately | 88 |
| Stabilityhow violently it moves, what it owes and what it pays you | 80 |
- Each factor except momentum is half fixed thresholds, half rank among the 73 Information Technology companies.
Key numbers
| Price / earnings | 34.7× |
|---|---|
| Price / book | 6.09× |
| Price / sales | 7.6× |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | +9.4% |
| EPS growth (YoY) | +10.7% |
| Gross margin | 82% |
| Operating margin | 25% |
| Net margin | 22% |
| Return on equity | 20% |
| Debt / equity | 0.00× |
| Current ratio | 1.66 |
| Dividend yield | none |
| Beta | 1.05 |
| 52-week range | $223.76 – $451.02 |
| Position in that range | 100% of the way up |
| 3-month return | +16.8% |
| 1-year return | +36.9% |
Five years of financials, as filed
Pulled from F5's XBRL filings on SEC EDGAR. Italic rows are derived from the rows above.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $3.1B | $2.8B | $2.8B | $2.7B | $2.6B |
| Gross profit | $2.5B | $2.3B | $2.2B | $2.2B | $2.1B |
| Operating income | $766M | $659M | $473M | $404M | $394M |
| Net income | $692M | $567M | $395M | $322M | $331M |
| Operating cash flow | $950M | $792M | $653M | $443M | $645M |
| Capital expenditure | $43.3M | $30.4M | $54.2M | $33.6M | $30.7M |
| Total assets | $6.3B | $5.9B | $5.3B | $5.1B | $5.1B |
| Cash | $1.2B | $1.2B | $823M | $606M | $512M |
| Long-term debt | — | — | — | — | $345M |
| Free cash flow | $906M | $762M | $599M | $409M | $615M |
| Gross margin | 81.4% | 80.2% | 78.9% | 80.0% | 81.1% |
| Operating margin | 24.8% | 23.4% | 16.8% | 15.0% | 15.1% |
| Net margin | 22.4% | 20.1% | 14.0% | 12.0% | 12.7% |
| Diluted shares | 58.7M | 59.4M | 60.3M | 61.1M | 62.1M |
Share count is down 5.4% over 4 years. Buybacks have been shrinking the pie.
What F5 says it does
F5 is a multicloud application delivery and security provider committed to bringing a better digital world to life. F5 partners with the world’s largest, most advanced organizations to optimize and secure every application and Application Programming Interface ("API") anywhere, including on-premises, in the cloud, and at the network edge. F5 enables businesses to continuously stay ahead of threats while delivering exceptional, secure digital experiences for their customers. Our application delivery and security solutions are available in a range of deployment and consumption models. We sell packaged software in perpetual, subscription, and usage-based consumption models. We also sell our solutions in software-as-a-service ("SaaS") and managed services deployment models with subscription and usage-based consumption models. In addition, we sell high-performance systems, or hardware, as well as a broad range of global services including…
Risk factors FFIV lists in its 10-K
- Cost of revenues and gross margins
- Cost of net revenues and gross profit
- Percentage of net revenues and gross margin (as a percentage of related net revenue)
- Operating expenses (as a percentage of net revenue)
- Other income and income taxes (as percentage of net revenue)
- Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
- Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosure About Market Risk
- Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
- Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
- Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting
- Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting
- (in thousands, except per share amounts)
- Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss
- Supplemental disclosures of cash flow information