# F5, INC. (FFIV)

Informational only - not investment advice.

CIK: 0001048695
SIC: 3576 Computer Communications Equipment
SIC breadcrumb: [Manufacturing](/division/D/) > [Industrial And Commercial Machinery And Computer Equipment](/major-group/35/) > [SIC 3576 Computer Communications Equipment](/industry/3576/)
Latest 10-K filed: 2025-11-25
SEC page: https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=1048695
Filing source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000104869525000157/ffiv-20250930.htm

## At a glance

FY2025 · period end 2025-09-30 · filed 2025-11-25 · accession 0001048695-25-000157 · source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001048695.json

| Metric | Value | FY | Provenance |
| --- | ---: | ---: | --- |
| Revenue | 3,088,072,000 USD | 2025 | verified |
| Net income | 692,380,000 USD | 2025 | verified |
| Assets | 6,319,492,000 USD | 2025 | verified |
| Free cash flow | 906,406,000 USD | 2025 | computed |
| Net margin | 22.42% | 2025 | computed |
| Operating margin | 24.80% | 2025 | computed |
| Revenue YoY | +9.66% | 2025 | computed |
| ROE | 19.28% | 2025 | computed |

Computed values are grepcent-computed from the verified facts above and may differ from ratios the company itself reports. Free cash flow = operating cash flow − capital expenditures. Net margin = net income ÷ revenue. Operating margin = operating income ÷ revenue. Revenue YoY = FY2025 revenue ÷ FY2024 revenue − 1 (consecutive fiscal years only). ROE = net income ÷ period-end stockholders' equity.

No market price, no rating, no forecast on this site. Not investment advice.

### Peer percentile fingerprint

| Ratio | FFIV | Peer median | Percentile | N |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Net margin | 22.4% | 7.7% | 94 | 110 |
| Operating margin | 24.8% | 13.1% | 90 | 104 |
| Revenue growth | 9.7% | 5.8% | 60 | 111 |
| FCF margin | 29.4% | 9.6% | 95 | 103 |
| ROE | 19.3% | 11.7% | 71 | 108 |
| ROA | 11.0% | 5.6% | 86 | 111 |
| Liabilities / equity | 0.76 | 1.10 | 30 | 108 |
| Current ratio | 1.56 | 2.02 | 34 | 110 |

Percentile = share of the N covered peers reporting that ratio whose value is lower (ties counted half); computed among grepcent-covered companies in SIC major-group 35 Industrial And Commercial Machinery And Computer Equipment, not the whole market. A higher percentile means a higher value of the ratio, not a better company. Ratios with fewer than 8 reporting peers are omitted. Latest reported values per company; fiscal periods may differ. Descriptive arithmetic - not a score, rating, or ranking.

## Selected Fundamentals
| Metric | Value | Unit | FY | Filed |
| --- | ---: | --- | ---: | --- |
| Revenue | 3088072000 | USD | 2025 | 2025-11-25 |
| Net income | 692380000 | USD | 2025 | 2025-11-25 |
| Assets | 6319492000 | USD | 2025 | 2025-11-25 |

## Financials

Annual standardized facts from SEC companyfacts as of latest extracted filing date 2025-11-25. Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001048695.json. Derived margins, ratios, and free cash flow are computed from the extracted annual SEC facts.

| Metric | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Revenue |  | 2,090,041,000 | 2,161,407,000 | 2,242,447,000 | 2,350,822,000 | 2,603,416,000 | 2,695,845,000 | 2,813,169,000 | 2,816,120,000 | 3,088,072,000 |
| Net income | 365,855,000 | 420,761,000 | 453,689,000 | 427,734,000 | 307,441,000 | 331,241,000 | 322,160,000 | 394,948,000 | 566,778,000 | 692,380,000 |
| Operating income | 547,377,000 | 563,956,000 | 590,899,000 | 518,463,000 | 392,267,000 | 394,025,000 | 403,792,000 | 472,568,000 | 658,591,000 | 765,949,000 |
| Gross profit | 1,657,829,000 | 1,736,556,000 | 1,799,926,000 | 1,885,870,000 | 1,942,935,000 | 2,110,270,000 | 2,156,218,000 | 2,219,861,000 | 2,258,473,000 | 2,514,094,000 |
| Diluted EPS | 5.38 | 6.50 | 7.32 | 7.08 | 5.01 | 5.34 | 5.27 | 6.55 | 9.55 | 11.80 |
| Operating cash flow | 711,535,000 | 740,281,000 | 761,068,000 | 747,841,000 | 660,898,000 | 645,196,000 | 442,631,000 | 653,409,000 | 792,419,000 | 949,666,000 |
| Capital expenditures | 63,488,000 | 38,681,000 | 53,465,000 | 103,542,000 | 59,940,000 | 30,651,000 | 33,624,000 | 54,184,000 | 30,412,000 | 43,260,000 |
| Share buybacks | 700,124,000 | 600,090,000 | 600,081,000 | 201,045,000 | 100,016,000 | 500,000,000 | 500,023,000 | 350,049,000 | 500,558,000 | 502,085,000 |
| Assets | 2,306,323,000 | 2,476,489,000 | 2,605,476,000 | 3,390,275,000 | 4,677,920,000 | 4,997,280,000 | 5,276,194,000 | 5,248,333,000 | 5,613,004,000 | 6,319,492,000 |
| Stockholders' equity | 1,185,262,000 | 1,229,392,000 | 1,285,492,000 | 1,761,497,000 | 2,232,268,000 | 2,360,213,000 | 2,468,978,000 | 2,800,232,000 | 3,129,378,000 | 3,591,999,000 |
| Cash and cash equivalents | 514,571,000 | 673,228,000 | 424,707,000 | 599,219,000 | 849,556,000 | 580,977,000 | 758,012,000 | 797,163,000 | 1,074,602,000 | 1,344,273,000 |
| Free cash flow | 648,047,000 | 701,600,000 | 707,603,000 | 644,299,000 | 600,958,000 | 614,545,000 | 409,007,000 | 599,225,000 | 762,007,000 | 906,406,000 |

### Ratios

ROE and ROA use period-end equity/assets. Liabilities / equity uses total liabilities divided by stockholders' equity. Current ratio uses current assets divided by current liabilities when both are reported.

| Metric | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Net margin |  | 20.13% | 20.99% | 19.07% | 13.08% | 12.72% | 11.95% | 14.04% | 20.13% | 22.42% |
| Operating margin |  | 26.98% | 27.34% | 23.12% | 16.69% | 15.13% | 14.98% | 16.80% | 23.39% | 24.80% |
| Return on equity | 30.87% | 34.23% | 35.29% | 24.28% | 13.77% | 14.03% | 13.05% | 14.10% | 18.11% | 19.28% |
| Return on assets | 15.86% | 16.99% | 17.41% | 12.62% | 6.57% | 6.63% | 6.11% | 7.53% | 10.10% | 10.96% |
| Liabilities / equity | 0.95 | 1.01 | 1.03 | 0.92 | 1.10 | 1.12 | 1.14 | 0.87 | 0.79 | 0.76 |
| Current ratio | 1.53 | 1.50 | 1.49 | 1.37 | 1.39 | 1.16 | 1.04 | 1.26 | 1.42 | 1.56 |

## As-reported value updates

No tracked differences above grepcent's stated thresholds and capped precision rule were found between the earliest XBRL-filed value and the value currently on file for the standardized annual metrics grepcent tracks.


## Quarterly

Quarterly standardized facts from SEC companyfacts as of latest extracted filing date 2026-08-06. Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001048695.json.

Flow metrics use discrete quarter-length periods from 10-Q/10-Q/A filings. Q4 revenue and net income are derived only when annual FY and nine-month YTD facts exist for the same fiscal year; derived Q4 values are labeled. EPS Q4 is not derived.

| Quarter | End date | Revenue | Net income | Diluted EPS | Method |
| --- | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- |
| 2023-Q1 | 2022-12-31 |  |  | 1.20 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2023-Q2 | 2023-03-31 |  |  | 1.34 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2023-Q3 | 2023-06-30 |  |  | 1.48 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2023-Q4 | 2023-09-30 | 706,974,000 | 152,134,000 |  | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD |
| 2024-Q1 | 2023-12-31 | 692,597,000 | 138,382,000 | 2.32 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2024-Q2 | 2024-03-31 | 681,354,000 | 119,021,000 | 2.00 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2024-Q3 | 2024-06-30 | 695,495,000 | 144,079,000 | 2.44 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2024-Q4 | 2024-09-30 | 746,674,000 | 165,296,000 |  | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD |
| 2025-Q1 | 2024-12-31 | 766,489,000 | 166,445,000 | 2.82 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2025-Q2 | 2025-03-31 | 731,123,000 | 145,530,000 | 2.48 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2025-Q3 | 2025-06-30 | 780,370,000 | 189,912,000 | 3.25 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2025-Q4 | 2025-09-30 | 810,090,000 | 190,493,000 |  | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD |
| 2026-Q1 | 2025-12-31 | 822,465,000 | 180,054,000 | 3.10 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2026-Q2 | 2026-03-31 | 811,700,000 | 147,755,000 | 2.58 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2026-Q3 | 2026-06-30 | 865,077,000 | 208,208,000 | 3.62 | reported discrete quarter |

## Filed narrative (10-K & 10-Q)

## Business

Verbatim Item 1 Business section from FFIV's latest 10-K: [/company/FFIV/business/](/company/FFIV/business/).

## Risk Factors

Verbatim Item 1A Risk Factors from FFIV's latest 10-K: [/company/FFIV/risk-factors/](/company/FFIV/risk-factors/).

## Latest quarter (10-Q)

Latest 10-Q source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000104869526000067/ffiv-20260630.htm

Extracted structurally from real Item 2 body heading to real Item 3/4 boundary.
Confidence: high
Filing date: 2026-08-06
Report date: 2026-06-30

Item 2.Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements about our plans, objectives, expectations, strategies, intentions or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, such as statements regarding our future operating results and financial position, our business strategy and plans, market growth and trends, our product strategy and anticipated future products and capabilities, our objectives for future operations, and the impact of such assumptions on our financial condition and results of operations, and are generally identified by the words "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on current information and expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, customer acceptance of offerings; disruptions to the global supply chain resulting in inability to source required parts for F5’s products or the ability to only do so at greatly increased prices thereby impacting our revenues and/or margins; global economic conditions and uncertainties in the geopolitical environment; overall information technology spending; F5’s ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses’ products with F5 technologies; the ability of F5’s sales professionals and distribution partners to sell new solutions and service offerings; the timely development, introduction and acceptance of additional new products and features by F5 or competitors; competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures, industry consolidation, entry of new competitors into F5’s markets, and new product and marketing initiatives by our competitors; increased sales discounts; the business impact of the acquisitions and potential adverse reactions or changes to business or employee relationships, including those resulting from the announcement of completion of acquisitions; uncertain global economic conditions which may result in reduced customer demand for our products and services and changes in customer payment patterns; litigation involving patents, intellectual property, shareholder and other matters, and governmental investigations; potential security flaws in networks, products or services; cybersecurity attacks on networks, products or services; natural catastrophic events; a pandemic or epidemic; F5’s ability to sustain, develop and effectively utilize distribution relationships; F5’s ability to attract, train and retain qualified product development, marketing, sales, professional services and customer support personnel; F5’s ability to expand in international markets; the unpredictability of F5’s sales cycle; the ability of F5 to execute on our share repurchase program, including the timing of any repurchases; future prices of F5’s common stock; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in Part II, Item 1A. "Risk Factors" herein, Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2025, and in other documents we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking statements.

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Overview

F5 is a global leader in application delivery and security solutions which enable its customers to deploy, operate, secure, optimize, and govern every application and API across on-premises architectures, in the cloud, and at the network edge. Our cloud, software, and hardware solutions enable our customers to deliver fast, available, and secure digital experiences to their customers at scale. Our enterprise-grade application services are available as hardware, software, and SaaS solutions optimized for hybrid, multicloud environments, with modules that can run independently, or as part of an integrated solution on our high-performance appliances. We market and sell our products primarily through multiple indirect sales channels in our Americas; Europe, the Middle East, and Africa ("EMEA"); and Asia Pacific ("APAC") regions. Enterprise customers (Fortune 1000 or Business Week Global 1000 companies) in the technology, financial services, transportation, education, manufacturing, and health care industries, along with government customers, and service providers continue to make up the largest percentage of our customer base.

Our management team monitors and analyzes a number of key performance indicators in order to manage our business and evaluate our financial and operating performance on a consolidated basis. Those indicators include:

•Revenues. Our revenue is derived from the sales of both products and services. The majority of our product revenues are derived from sales of our application delivery and security solutions including our F5 BIG-IP software and systems, F5 NGINX software, and our F5 Distributed Cloud Services offerings. Our F5 BIG-IP software solutions are sold both on a subscription and perpetual license basis. We sell F5 NGINX on a subscription basis as deployable software or SaaS. F5 Distributed Cloud Services are offered on a subscription basis, under a unified SaaS platform and managed service platform. Our services revenue includes annual maintenance contracts, training and consulting services.

We monitor the sales mix of our revenues within each reporting period. We believe customer acceptance rates of our new products, feature enhancements, and consumption models are indicators of future trends. We also consider overall revenue concentration by geographic region as an additional indicator of current and future trends.

•Cost of revenues and gross margins. Significant items impacting cost of revenues are hardware costs paid to our contract manufacturers, personnel costs, including the salaries, stock-based compensation and related benefits of our personnel, technology costs, including third-party cloud hosting and related services, depreciation of cloud infrastructure costs, software licenses expenses, and amortization expense in connection with developed technology from acquisitions. In addition, factors such as sales price, product and services mix, inventory obsolescence, returns, component price increases, warranty costs, and global supply chain constraints could significantly impact our gross margins.

•Operating expenses. Operating expenses are substantially driven by personnel and related overhead expenses. Existing headcount and future hiring plans are the predominant factors in analyzing and forecasting future operating expense trends. Other significant operating expenses that we monitor include costs associated with cyber and enterprise-wide security, marketing and promotions, travel, professional fees, technology costs, including cloud hosting and software licenses expenses, related to the development of new products and provision of services, facilities and depreciation expenses.

•Liquidity and cash flows. We continue to maintain a strong financial position, characterized by substantial cash and investment resources, which provide liquidity, support ongoing operations, and enable us to pursue strategic growth opportunities. The increase in cash and investments for the first nine months of fiscal year 2026 was primarily due to cash provided by operating activities of $841.4 million, partially offset by purchases of property and equipment of $63.7 million, cash used to repurchase outstanding common stock under our stock repurchase program, including excise taxes, of $501.1 million, and cash used in acquisition of a business of $47.6 million. Going forward, we believe the primary driver of cash flows will continue to be net income from operations. We will continue to evaluate possible acquisitions of, or investments in businesses, products, or technologies that we believe are strategic, which may require the use of cash.

•Balance sheet. We view cash, short-term and long-term investments, deferred revenue, and accounts receivable balances as important indicators of our financial health. Deferred revenues increased to $2.2 billion as of June 30, 2026 from $2.0 billion as of September 30, 2025 primarily due to an increase in maintenance contracts related to strong systems shipments, in addition to an increase in deferred revenue associated with our subscription offerings.

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Cyber Incident

On October 15, 2025, we disclosed a security incident in which a threat actor maintained long-term, persistent access to F5 systems, and exfiltrated certain files, referred to as the "Cyber Incident." For further information about the Cyber Incident, see "Risk Factors" included in Item 1A of Part I and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Cyber Incident" included in Item 7 of Part II of the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025.

Critical Accounting Estimates

The preparation of our financial condition and results of operations requires us to make judgments and estimates that may have a significant impact upon our financial results. We believe that, of our significant accounting policies, revenue recognition requires estimates and assumptions that require complex, subjective judgments by management, which can materially impact reported results. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

There were no material changes to our critical accounting policies and estimates compared to the critical accounting policies and estimates described in "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

The anticipated impact of recent accounting pronouncements is discussed in Note 1 to the accompanying Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Impact of Macroeconomic Conditions

Our overall performance depends in part on worldwide economic and geopolitical conditions and their impacts on customer behavior. Uncertain economic conditions, including inflation, tariffs and other duties, risks related to global supply chain shortages that may impact sourcing and pricing of components used within our products, including rising costs of memory and storage, higher interest rates, slower growth, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, ongoing geopolitical conflicts, and other changes in economic conditions, may adversely affect our results of operations and financial performance. For further discussion of the potential impacts of recent macroeconomic events on our business, financial condition, and operating results, see Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025.

Results of Operations

The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements, related notes and risk factors included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

[Excerpt truncated for page length; source filing is linked above.]

## Latest 10-K MD&A (excerpt)

Latest 10-K Item 7 source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000104869525000157/ffiv-20250930.htm
Complete FY 2025 MD&A: /company/FFIV/mda/fy2025/

Extracted structurally from real Item 7 body heading to real Item 7A/8 boundary.
Confidence: high
Filing date: 2025-11-25
Report date: 2025-09-30

Item 7.Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements about our plans, objectives, expectations, strategies, intentions or other characterizations of future events or circumstances and are generally identified by the words "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on current information and expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed under "Item 1A. Risk Factors" herein and in other documents we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking statements.

Overview

F5 is a global leader in application delivery and security solutions which enables its customers to deploy, operate, secure, optimize, and govern every application and API across on-premises architectures, in the cloud, and at the network edge. Our cloud, software, and hardware solutions enable our customers to deliver fast, available, and secure digital experiences to their customers at scale. Our application services are available as hardware, software, SaaS, and software-only solutions optimized for hybrid, multicloud environments, with modules that can run independently, or as part of an integrated solution on our high-performance appliances. We market and sell our products primarily through multiple indirect sales channels in our Americas; Europe, the Middle East, and Africa ("EMEA"); and Asia Pacific ("APAC") regions. Enterprise customers (Fortune 1000 or Business Week Global 1000 companies) in the technology, financial services, transportation, education, manufacturing, and health care industries, along with government customers, and service providers continue to make up the largest percentage of our customer base.

Our management team monitors and analyzes a number of key performance indicators in order to manage our business and evaluate our financial and operating performance on a consolidated basis. Those indicators include:

•Revenues. Our revenue is derived from the sales of both products and services. The majority of our product revenues are derived from sales of our application delivery and security solutions including our F5 BIG-IP software and systems, F5 NGINX software, and our F5 Distributed Cloud Services offerings. Our F5 BIG-IP software solutions are sold both on a subscription and perpetual license basis. We sell F5 NGINX on a subscription basis as deployable software or SaaS. F5 Distributed Cloud Services provides security, multicloud networking, and edge-based computing solutions and are offered on a subscription basis, under a unified SaaS platform and managed service platform. Our services revenue includes annual maintenance contracts, training and consulting services.

We monitor the sales mix of our revenues within each reporting period. We believe customer acceptance rates of our new products, feature enhancements and consumption models are indicators of future trends. We also consider overall revenue concentration by geographic region as an additional indicator of current and future trends. In fiscal 2025, we benefited from improving customer demand, which began to stabilize and improve following macroeconomic uncertainties at the start of fiscal 2024.

•Cost of revenues and gross margins. We strive to control our cost of revenues and thereby maintain our gross margins. Significant items impacting cost of revenues are hardware costs paid to our contract manufacturers, third-party software license fees, technology costs, including cloud hosting and software licenses expenses, amortization of developed technology and personnel and overhead expenses. In addition, factors such as sales price, product and services mix, inventory obsolescence, returns, component price increases, warranty costs, and global supply chain constraints could significantly impact our gross margins.

•Operating expenses. Operating expenses are substantially driven by personnel and related overhead expenses. Existing headcount and future hiring plans are the predominant factors in analyzing and forecasting future operating expense trends. Other significant operating expenses that we monitor include costs associated with cyber and enterprise-wide security, marketing and promotions, travel, professional fees, technology costs, including cloud hosting and software licenses expenses, related to the development of new products and provision of services, facilities and depreciation expenses.

•Liquidity and cash flows. Our financial condition remains strong with significant cash and investments. The increase in cash and investments for fiscal year 2025 was primarily due to cash provided by operating activities of $949.7 million, partially offset by $502.1 million of cash used for the repurchase of outstanding common stock under our stock repurchase program, including the payment of related excise taxes. In addition, $171.1 million of cash was used for the acquisition of businesses during fiscal 2025, and $43.3 million of cash was used for capital expenditures related to the expansion of our facilities to support our operations worldwide, as well as investments in technology, including cloud hosting and software licenses, and equipment purchases to support our core business activities. Going forward, we believe the primary driver of cash flows will

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continue to be net income from operations. We will continue to evaluate possible acquisitions of, or investments in businesses, products, or technologies that we believe are strategic, which may require the use of cash. Additionally, on January 31, 2020, we entered into a Revolving Credit Agreement (the "Revolving Credit Agreement") that provides for a senior unsecured revolving credit facility in an aggregate principal amount of $350.0 million (the "Revolving Credit Facility"). On January 31, 2025, the Revolving Credit Facility expired. At the time of expiration, there were no outstanding borrowings under the Revolving Credit Facility.

•Balance sheet. We view cash, short-term and long-term investments, deferred revenue, accounts receivable balances and days sales outstanding as important indicators of our financial health. Deferred revenues continued to increase in fiscal 2025 due to an increase in deferred subscription contracts, including SaaS and maintenance associated with licensed-based subscriptions, which includes sales as part of our Flexible Consumption Program. Our days sales outstanding for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025 was 46. Days sales outstanding is calculated by dividing ending accounts receivable by revenue per day for a given quarter.

Cyber Incident

On October 15, 2025, we disclosed information about a Cyber Incident in which a highly sophisticated nation-state threat actor had gained unauthorized long-term, persistent access to certain Company systems, and exfiltrated certain files, some of which contained certain portions of our BIG-IP source code and information about undisclosed vulnerabilities that our engineering teams were working on in BIG-IP. Upon identifying the threat, we immediately activated our incident response process and took extensive actions to contain the threat actor, which included engaging leading external cybersecurity experts. Our investigation, monitoring, and related activities related to the incident are ongoing. To date, we believe our containment actions have been successful, and since the initiation of these efforts, we have not observed any evidence of new unauthorized activity.

To date, we are not aware of any undisclosed critical or remote code vulnerabilities, and we are not aware of active exploitation of any undisclosed vulnerabilities within our products. Further, to date, we have no evidence of modification to our software supply chain, including our source code and our build and release pipelines. This assessment has been validated through independent reviews by leading cybersecurity research firms. We have no evidence that the threat actor accessed or modified the NGINX source code or product development environment, nor do we have evidence they accessed or modified our F5 Distributed Cloud Services or Silverline systems. In response to the incident, we have prioritized delivering reliable software release updates to address all undisclosed high vulnerabilities in BIG-IP source code, with a significant number of our largest customers having completed these updates with minimal disruption. We have, and will continue to prioritize steps to bolster our security posture in implementing further measures to strengthen our security environment and protect our customers.

To date, this incident has not had a material impact on our operations. As a result of the incident, we anticipate near-term disruption to our sales cycles with demand impacts more pronounced in the early part of the fiscal year and normalizing in the second half of the fiscal year 2026. These disruptions may also lead to a near term impact on our operating margin within fiscal year 2026. We expect to continue to incur additional professional services and other expenses associated with incident response during fiscal year 2026. As of the date of this filing these expenses were not material. See Note 12. Commitments and Contingencies in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8 of Part II of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for more information.

Critical Accounting Estimates

Our consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

We believe that, of our significant accounting policies, which are described in Note 1 of the notes to the consolidated financial statements, the following accounting policy involves a greater degree of judgment and complexity. Accordingly, we believe the following policy is the most critical to aid in fully understanding and evaluating our consolidated financial condition and results of operations.

Revenue Recognition. The majority of our contracts with our customers include various combinations of our products and subscriptions and support. Our hardware products and software licenses are distinct from our subscriptions and support services as the customer can benefit from the product without these services and such services are separately identifiable within the contract. We account for multiple agreements with a single customer as a single contract if the contractual terms and/or substance of those agreements indicate that they may be so closely related that they are, in effect, parts of a single contract. The

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amount of consideration we expect to receive in exchange for delivering on the contract is allocated to each performance obligation based on its relative standalone selling price.

When estimating standalone selling price, we firs

[Excerpt truncated for page length; the complete text is on the linked full-MD&A page.]

Read the full FY 2025 MD&A: /company/FFIV/mda/fy2025/
All MD&A years: /company/FFIV/mda/


## MD&A history

Prior-year 10-K MD&A spans are extracted from SEC filings with the same bounded parser used for the latest filing. Each year's full verbatim text is on its own sub-page.

- [FY 2024 MD&A](/company/FFIV/mda/fy2024/): filed 2024-11-18; accession 0001048695-24-000185 (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000104869524000185/ffiv-20240930.htm)
- [FY 2023 MD&A](/company/FFIV/mda/fy2023/): filed 2023-11-14; accession 0001048695-23-000039 (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000104869523000039/ffiv-20230930.htm)
- [FY 2022 MD&A](/company/FFIV/mda/fy2022/): filed 2022-11-15; accession 0001048695-22-000033 (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000104869522000033/ffiv-20220930.htm)
- [FY 2021 MD&A](/company/FFIV/mda/fy2021/): filed 2021-11-16; accession 0001048695-21-000044 (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000104869521000044/ffiv-20210930.htm)




## Macro cross-references

Indicators mapped to this company's SIC classification (industry 3576 Computer Communications Equipment) by grepcent's deterministic macro-sector crosswalk. A navigational mapping, not a statistical or causal claim.

- [INDPRO](/indicator/INDPRO/): Industrial Production: Total Index
- [TCU](/indicator/TCU/): Capacity Utilization: Total Index
- [PPIACO](/indicator/PPIACO/): Producer Price Index by Commodity: All Commodities
- [GDPC1](/indicator/GDPC1/): Real Gross Domestic Product
- [DGS10](/indicator/DGS10/): Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 10-Year Constant Maturity
- [FEDFUNDS](/indicator/FEDFUNDS/): Federal Funds Effective Rate
- [CES0500000003](/indicator/CES0500000003/): Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Total Private
- [PAYEMS](/indicator/PAYEMS/): All Employees, Total Nonfarm

Macro-to-micro threads including this sector: [Inflation (CPI / PCE / PPI)](/thread/inflation-cpi-pce-ppi/), [US labor market](/thread/us-labor-market/), [Growth & output](/thread/growth-output/), [Money & trade](/thread/money-trade/), [Government finances](/thread/government-finances/), [Sector employment](/thread/sector-employment/), [Industrial orders & inventories](/thread/industrial-orders/), [Trade & external](/thread/trade-external/).

All macro indicators: /indicators/


## For LLMs & downloads

Markdown twin: /company/FFIV.md · JSON record: /company/FFIV.json · verified financials: /company/FFIV/financials.json / /company/FFIV/financials.csv · machine TOC for the whole site: /llms.txt
