FFIV US S&P 500Russell 1000 Earnings call · transcribed from the recording
F5, Inc. (FFIV) · Q2 2026 results and valuation
Share price: $320.01 · 2026-11-11
F5, Inc. provides multicloud application delivery and security solutions for enterprise businesses, government institutions, and service providers. The company offers software, hardware, and managed services to protect and optimize applications and APIs across on-premises, cloud, and edge environments. It operates globally across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. Source: 10-K annual report (2025-11-25)
Results Q2 2026 vs Q1 2026 · previous quarter · fiscal Q3 2026 · published 27 Jul 2026 and 28 Apr 2026
Net income up 40.9% on the previous quarter. Management sounded about as positive as a typical company call, in its script and in answers to analysts.
1 · Numbers
+40.9%
Net income vs Q1 2026
Outlook given
Net income 208.2M vs 147.8M
Revenue +6.6%
Against the same quarter last year (Q2 2025) it is +9.6% — part of the move on last quarter is seasonal.
2 · How management spoke
Typical
More upbeat than 55% of company calls
Answers to analysts: very upbeat, in line with the script.
Similar to last call.
3 · What stood out
F5, Inc. reported that the cumulative total customer count for direct AI use cases grew 50% in Q3.
Valuation
Is F5, Inc. undervalued?
Reverse DCF. Free cash flow from the last full fiscal year (2025-09-30), grown for 10 years, discounted back, plus a terminal value. “Implied growth” is the rate the current price assumes.
At 4.6% growth a year (3-year revenue growth), the model's fair value is $283.82 a share — the stock trades 13% above it. Today's price assumes 6.4% growth a year.
Current price
$320.01
close of 2026-11-11
Market implies growth of iThe yearly free-cash-flow growth, for the next 10 years, that today’s share price already assumes. If you believe the company grows faster than this, the stock is cheap under this model; slower, and it is expensive.
+6.4% for 10 yrs
Fair value / share
$283.82
Buy below
$212.86
Price vs fair value
Overvalued 13%
Price vs buy-below price
Overvalued 50%
Management expects
Revenue +7.5% · from the Q2 2026 report: “The company raised its fiscal year 2026 revenue growth outlook to approximately 9% to 10%, up from the previous estimate of 7% to 8%.”
A guidance figure for revenue, usually one year ahead, not a 10-year free-cash-flow rate.
Read between the lines
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Guidance
The company raised its fiscal year 2026 revenue growth outlook to approximately 9% to 10%, up from the previous estimate of 7% to 8%.
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Guidance
The company raised its Q4 non-GAAP gross margin forecast to the range of 83% to 84% from its previous estimate.
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Guidance
The company expects its full year share repurchase to be at least 50% of its free cash flow.
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Figure
Product revenue grew by 19%, which drove an 11% increase in total growth for the quarter.
Source quote
“We delivered 19% product revenue growth, driving 11% total growth.”
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Figure
The cumulative total customer count for direct AI use cases grew 50% in Q3, which reflects an accelerating pace of demand.
Source quote
“In fact, our cumulative total customer count for direct AI use cases grew 50% just in Q3, underscoring the accelerating pace of demand.”
4 more
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Figure
While attacks on IT assets grew over 60% in three years, application layer attacks surged 140% in the same timeframe.
Source quote
“Attacks on IT assets grew more than 60% over the last 3 years. But in that same time frame, the volume of application layer attacks surged 140%.”
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Figure
Since launching in Q2, 15% of F5's Distributed Cloud WAF customers have adopted the capability and of those, 75% are running in blocking mode versus monitor mode.
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Guidance
Q3 revenue and earnings were both well above the top end of guidance.
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Figure
The number of AI security customers grew 100% in the quarter, indicating a significant expansion in that specific customer segment.
Source quote
“The number of AI security customers actually grew 100% just in the quarter.”
Tone
How upbeat the language was, compared with other companiesiTone counts positive minus negative finance words, adjusted for length. Executives mostly speak positively, so the labels compare each call with every company's latest call: “typical” is the middle third, “very upbeat” the top tenth, “cautious” the bottom tenth.. Dot: Q2 2026. Ring: Q1 2026.
Script and answers carried a similar tone, so the script's message held up under questioning.
Sentences that drove the tone
“We are converting hybrid multi-cloud adoption into expansion opportunities, competitive displacements, digital sovereignty wins and platform consolidation wins.”
“So it all adds up to what we think is a pretty compelling growth opportunity, getting back to a solid double-digit growth outlook for next year.”
“And we are building AI momentum with another strong quarter of wins across AI data delivery, AI runtime security, and AI factory load balancing.”
Full figures
USD · SEC EDGAR XBRL (10-Q, period end 2026-06-30)
| Metric | Q2 2026period end 2026-06-30 | Q1 2026period end 2026-03-31 | Change | Q2 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 865.1M | 811.7M | +6.6% | 780.4M | +10.9% |
| Gross profit | 711.5M | 660.8M | +7.7% | 631.7M | +12.6% |
| Operating income | 213.3M | 179.0M | +19.1% | 196.3M | +8.6% |
| Net income | 208.2M | 147.8M | +40.9% | 189.9M | +9.6% |
| EPS | 3.62 | 2.58 | +40.3% | 3.25 | +11.4% |
| P/E today 24.8 | 33.1 | 23.8 | +9.3 | 26.0 | +7.1 |
Topics
Most discussed now
- Other members of the F5 executive team are also here to answer questions during the Q&A session.
- EMEA delivered yet another robust quarter with 27% revenue growth, representing 30% of revenue.
- F5's software revenue of $223 million grew 7% year-over-year.
- F5 eliminates the complexity of stitching together point products and give customers consistent performance, security and policy wherever…
- F5's application delivery and security platform delivers and secures every app and every API across on-premises, cloud and edge…
Faded since Q1 2026
- Fading F5 generated $366 million in cash flow from operations in Q2 and free cash flow of $348 million, both records,...
- Fading The first is given if you don't have a significant window of time to patch your applications, you are going...
Latest announcements
Official filings, newest first. Summaries are generated from each filing and its attachment; every figure is checked against the source.
- Results of operations; Other events · SEC 8-K
F5 reported fourth-quarter revenue of $917 million, a 13% increase from $810 million in the prior year, while the board authorized an additional $1.5 billion for share repurchases.
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K
F5 reported third-quarter revenue of $865 million, an 11% increase from $780 million in the same period of the previous year.
- Director or officer change; Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
F5, Inc. appointed Gavin Munroe to its Board of Directors on June 17, 2026, to serve on the Audit and Risk committees with an annual retainer of $60,000.
- Director or officer change; Other events · SEC 8-K
F5, Inc. appointed Anand Eswaran to its board of directors on April 24, 2026, expanding the board to 9 members.
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K
F5 reported second-quarter revenue of $812 million, an 11% increase from $731 million in the same period of the previous year.
- Director or officer change; Shareholder vote results · SEC 8-K
Shareholders approved the 2026 Incentive Award Plan including 3,500,000 new shares, and voted to elect eight directors and ratify PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the independent auditor.
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K
F5 reported first-quarter revenue of $822 million, representing a 7% increase from $766 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025.
- Results of operations; Director or officer change · SEC 8-K
F5 reported fourth-quarter revenue of $810 million, an 8% increase from $747 million in the same period last year, with total fiscal year 2025 revenue reaching $3.09 billion, up 10% year over year.
Catalyst calendar
management-stated targets — from the latest earnings call; plans, not promises.
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October 26, 2026
availability of archived audio
Source quote
“Today's press release is available on our website at f5.com, where an archived version of today's audio will be available through October 26, 2026.”
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midnight Pacific Time, July 28, 2026
availability of telephonic replay
Source quote
“The telephonic replay will be available through midnight Pacific Time, July 28, 2026.”
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fiscal year 2026
raised revenue growth outlook
Source quote
“As a result, we are raising our fiscal year 2026 outlook to approximately 9% to 10% revenue growth, up from 7% to 8%.”
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Q4
market trends driving demand
Source quote
“We expect that the market trends we've outlined, hybrid multi-cloud adoption, threat landscape expansion and AI inference inflection will drive continued strong demand in Q4 and into FY '27.”
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Q4
revenue range
Source quote
“As a result, we expect Q4 revenue in a range of $870 million to $890 million, reflecting just under 9% year-over-year growth at the midpoint.”