Stock Story -
What Happened: Shares of network application delivery and security specialist F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) jumped 14.5% in the pre-market session after the company reported second-quarter earnings results. F5 provided revenue guidance for the next quarter, which topped analysts' expectations, which is what the market seems to be cheering. In addition, revenue beat analysts' estimates during the quarter, and gross margin improved compared to last year.
Separately, the company announced that Frank Pelzer, executive VP and CFO, plans to retire during Q1 2025, which ends December 31, 2024. He is expected to assist in transitioning to his intended successor, Edward Cooper Werner, current senior VP of Finance. Overall, it was a strong quarter for the company.
Is now the time to buy F5? Find out by reading the original article on StockStory, it's free.
What is the market telling us: F5's shares are not very volatile than the market average and over the last year have had only one move greater than 5%. Moves this big are very rare for F5 and that is indicating to us that this news had a significant impact on the market's perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 3 months ago, when the stock dropped 10.5% on the news that the company reported first-quarter results with revenue and EPS guidance for the next quarter falling below analysts' expectations. Its revenue and billings missed Wall Street's estimates during the quarter. The company called out macro concerns, adding, "Customers remain cautious and are forecasting largely flat IT budgets for calendar 2024." Overall, this was a weaker quarter for F5.
F5 is up 11.6% since the beginning of the year, and at $196.67 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of F5's shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,312.
