F5 Gains 13% in Six Months: Should You Add the Stock to Your Portfolio?

F5’s FFIV shares have appreciated 12.8% over the past six months, outperforming the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s decline of 1.4% and the Zacks Internet - Software industry’s return of 4.8%.

The company has also outperformed its industry peers, including monday.com MNDY and Confluent CFLT. Over the same time frame, monday.com’s shares rose 0.5%, while Confluent’s shares have declined 28.5%.

This outperformance reflects strong investor confidence, supported by the company’s strong fiscal second-quarter 2025 results. Revenues rose 7% year over year to $731 million, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2%. Earnings per share were $3.42 per share, representing an 18% increase from the prior-year quarter and surpassing expectations by 10.3%.

The momentum underscores F5’s growing leadership in hybrid multicloud and AI-driven solutions, as well as its continued focus on innovation across the Application Delivery and Security portfolio, and the accelerating impact of strategic partnerships.

F5, Inc. Price and Consensus

F5, Inc. price-consensus-chart | F5, Inc. Quote

F5’s Prospects Ride on Platform Growth and Key Partnership

F5 introduced the Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP), a unified solution that integrates high-performance load balancing, intelligent traffic management and advanced security for applications and APIs. This platform aims to address challenges such as high costs, complexity and escalating cyber risks, providing a comprehensive solution for modern IT environments.

F5 platform strategy centers on “AI for ADC” and “ADC for AI.” The first empowers customers to streamline the management of application delivery controllers (ADCs) through automation and intelligent operations. The second extends F5’s strength in secure, high-performance delivery to power next-generation AI workloads such as model inference and real-time interactions. These pillars enable F5 to modernize enterprise infrastructure while laying the groundwork for the next era of AI-native application ecosystems.

F5 has launched its ADC 3.0 framework, which supports the emergence of autonomous, agentic systems. With native support for the Model Context Protocol, ADSP enables AI agents to share memory, context and tasks, allowing more intelligent, seamless AI interactions. Simultaneously, F5 is expanding its BigIP portfolio to meet growing demand for enterprise-grade private cloud deployments, particularly among government and telecom clients.

F5, in partnership with NVIDIA NVDA, optimizes AI infrastructure by enabling load balancing both across and within AI factories, enhancing performance and efficiency. This collaboration with NVIDIA supports critical AI-use cases and fuels strong business growth through enhanced AI capabilities.

F5 is deepening its partnership with Red Hat to accelerate the secure deployment and scaling of AI-powered applications. By integrating the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform with Red Hat OpenShift AI, the partnership enables enterprises to adopt AI more efficiently and with greater security.

FFIV Provides Optimistic Outlook

F5 enters the third quarter of fiscal 2025 with solid pipeline visibility, underpinned by continued demand for data center modernization, consistent competitive wins and a large base of software subscriptions set for renewal.

For third-quarter fiscal 2025, F5 expects revenues between $740 million and $760 million, representing approximately 8% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter fiscal 2025 revenues is pegged at $749.61 million, indicating a 7.78% increase year over year.

The company projected a non-GAAP EPS in the range of $3.41-$3.53 for the third quarter of fiscal 2025. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings is pegged at $3.49, indicating a year-over-year increase of 3.87%.

F5 raised its fiscal 2025 revenue growth guidance to 6.5-7.5% from 6-7% projected earlier. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2025 revenues is pegged at $3.01 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 6.98%.

Non-GAAP earnings per share are expected to grow between 8% and 10%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2025 earnings is pegged at $14.55, indicating year-over-year growth of 8.83%.

Conclusion: Buy F5 Stock for Now

F5’s expanding AI and multicloud capabilities, strong subscription base and solid execution in application delivery and security solutions highlight its resilience and growth potential. Backed by a positive outlook, product innovation and increasing enterprise demand, F5 presents a compelling buy opportunity for investors.

FFIV currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research