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US company selling application delivery and security software/hardware that manages and protects enterprise network traffic.
US company selling application delivery and security software/hardware that manages and protects enterprise network traffic.
Sells appliances and software that sit in front of applications, then renews support contracts on them, which are steadier than product sales. It has been shifting customers to subscription licences, and growing by acquisition: NGINX in 2019, Shape Security in 2020 and Volterra in 2021 extended it into open-source software, bot defense and cloud services.
Moat: narrow (switching costs, installed base). BIG-IP is embedded deep in enterprise network infrastructure, making rip-and-replace costly and risky.
Headquarters: Seattle, Washington, US · Founded: 1996
Size F5, Inc. (FFIV) is a United States Information Technology company (Packaged Software) with a market value of $17.7B, the 532nd largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $310.84 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 12.2%, against +32.6% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 4th lowest of 20 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 10.6% over the last twelve months (peer median +20.0%); the operating margin is 24.1% (peer median 16.0%).
Valuation It trades at 17.1× forward earnings against a peer median of 22.8× (7th cheapest of 19).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 10% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +6%, so the hurdle is +4 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 17.8 points above its cost of capital (10.2% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was $2.20B at 30 Jun 2026, up 10% on a year earlier — 0.7 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Short interest Short interest is 1.9% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 26 Jan 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2026 | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $3.42B | $3.42B | $3.09B | $2.82B | $2.81B |
| Revenue growth | — | +11% | +10% | 0% | — |
| Gross profit | $2.88B | $2.80B | $2.48B | $2.22B | $2.18B |
| EBITDA | $1.03B | $922M | $922M | $810M | $688M |
| Net income | $722M | $722M | $692M | $567M | $395M |
| Free cash flow | $869M | $869M | $906M | $762M | $599M |
| Capital expenditure | $90.5M | $90.5M | $43.3M | $30.4M | $54.2M |
| Total debt | $212M | $212M | $262M | $250M | $281M |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F5, Inc. FFIV | $17.7B | -12% | +11% | 24% | 17.1× | 9.7% |
| Cisco CSCO | $369B | -3% | +12% | 25% | 18.4× | 15.0% |
| A10 Networks ATEN | $1.80B | -11% | +12% | 17% | 22.0× | 16.7% |
| Akamai Technologies AKAM | $11.9B | -44% | +6% | 12% | 12.8× | 17.0% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | FFIV | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -32.7% | +4.3% | 2nd lowest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -12.2% | +32.6% | 4th lowest of 20 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -35.7% | -13.6% | 6th lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +10.6% | +20.0% | 7th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 24.1% | 16.0% | 7th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 17.1× | 22.8× | 7th cheapest of 19 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 9.7% | 18.8% | 6th least demanding of 18 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +5.6% | +19.1% | 2nd lowest of 18 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +4.1 pp | -2.6 pp | 7th most demanding of 18 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +17.8 pp | +0.7 pp | 6th highest of 18 |
| EV / EBITDA | 15.8× | 17.5× | 5th cheapest of 12 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | -1.3× | -0.5× | 6th least indebted of 15 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F5, Inc. FFIV | United States | $17.7B | -12% | +11% | 24% | 17.1× | 9.7% | +5.6% |
| Gen Digital GEN | United States | $17.7B | +32% | +17% | 43% | 9.6× | 1.8% | +14.4% |
| Circle Internet CRCL | United States | $17.3B | -40% | +26% | 13% | 68.1× | 23.2% | +52.7% |
| SS&C Technologies SSNC | United States | $18.2B | +13% | +9% | 24% | 10.2× | 6.9% | +6.1% |
| Beijing Kingsoft Office Software 688111.SS | China | $16.1B | -8% | +20% | 22% | 35.6× | 32.7% | +21.3% |
| Evolution EVO.ST | Sweden | $15.8B | +33% | -3% | 57% | 14.4× | -0.3% | +31.2% |
| Cerebras Systems CBRS | United States | $20.1B | n/a | +91% | -81% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Toast TOST | United States | $20.1B | +38% | +22% | 7% | 20.9× | 28.6% | +49.5% |
| PTC PTC | United States | $21.2B | +33% | +20% | 40% | 21.8× | 10.3% | +8.6% |
| Manhattan Associates MANH | United States | $14.7B | +77% | +8% | 25% | 42.0× | 29.4% | +13.0% |
| DocuSign DOCU | United States | $14.5B | +62% | +9% | 12% | 15.9× | 12.9% | +17.2% |
| Sage SGE.L | United Kingdom | $14.1B | +33% | +9% | 23% | 23.1× | 3.1% | +5.7% |
| Zhejiang Century Huatong 002602.SZ | China | $14.0B | -20% | +28% | 21% | 11.1× | -0.2% | +20.4% |
| Tempus AI TEM | United States | $13.9B | +53% | +37% | -18% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Unity Software U | United States | $22.7B | +83% | +14% | -14% | 49.4× | 33.5% | +19.1% |
| Hithink RoyalFlush Information Network 300033.SZ | China | $22.9B | -14% | +48% | 56% | 32.7× | 37.1% | +16.3% |
| Samsara IOT | United States | $24.0B | +38% | +30% | 1% | 48.5× | n/a | n/a |
| Trimble TRMB | United States | $12.6B | -11% | +7% | 18% | 13.6× | 15.3% | +2.6% |
| Dynatrace DT | United States | $12.5B | +7% | +18% | 14% | 22.6× | 18.8% | +23.5% |
| JFrog FROG | United States | $12.5B | +43% | +26% | -13% | 89.6× | 37.7% | +28.7% |
| MongoDB MDB | United States | $25.2B | +4% | +25% | -1% | 44.7× | 27.9% | +33.1% |
F5, Inc. reported $2.20B of remaining performance obligations at 30 Jun 2026, up 10% from a year earlier and up 5% from the previous quarter. That is 0.7 years of trailing revenue already under contract. Book-to-bill last quarter: 1.12.