F5, Inc. lit up the options screen this week with a sharp shift in sentiment — the put/call ratio dropped to 0.81, well below its 20-day average of 1.06, as the company delivered a fiscal Q2 beat that pushed the stock up 8% on Tuesday and 5.5% on the week to $328.15.
The Street's reaction was swift and one-directional. JP Morgan's Samik Chatterjee raised his target to $365 (from $355) while holding Overweight. RBC Capital moved more aggressively, lifting to $375 from $345 on an Outperform. Even Barclays, sitting at Equal-Weight, bumped its target to $292 from $283. The consensus is now clustered around a $337 mean target — modest upside from current levels — reflecting a Street that broadly upgraded its numbers without upgrading its ratings. Four analysts have Outperform or equivalent, seven remain at Hold, and the ORTEX analyst recommendation differential sits at a neutral 51st percentile. The bull case centres on 7% sales growth to $822 million, record EMEA performance, and raised fiscal 2026 guidance of 5–6% revenue growth — materially ahead of the prior 0–4% range. Bears counter that billings fell 3% year-on-year and the stock now trades at roughly 19.5x earnings and 13.6x EV/EBITDA, both up around a point over the past week as the price ran.
Options positioning underscores the mood shift clearly. For most of the past month, put/call ratios ran above 1.2 — investors were hedging heavily into the print. After Tuesday's result, the ratio collapsed to 0.81, nearly 1.3 standard deviations below the 20-day mean. That's not crowded call-buying, but it marks a meaningful easing of the defensive posture that had built through April.
Short interest tells a less dramatic story. Bears were already exiting before the print: SI as a percentage of the free float peaked near 3.9% on April 16 and has steadily fallen to 3.2% at the latest reading. That 9% week-on-week decline in shares short was the clearest pre-earnings signal that conviction on the short side was fading. Borrow conditions confirm the lack of urgency — cost to borrow is a negligible 0.36%, down roughly 20% on the week, and availability remains very wide. With utilisation well below its 52-week high of 11.5%, there is no squeeze dynamic worth flagging.
Institutional ownership adds a supportive backdrop. First Trust added over 1.1 million shares in the most recent quarter, bringing its position to 5.3% of shares. Hotchkis & Wiley holds 10.5% and added 637,000 shares earlier this year. Wellington built a position of 420,000 shares. Against that, the CFO and CEO each sold shares at $300 in late March — routine-sized transactions (trade significance scores of 2 out of 10) and now well below the current price, which slightly diminishes their signal value.
Peer context sharpens the outperformance: AUDC and VSAT both fell roughly 7–8% on the week, and ANET dropped 4.4%. F5's divergence from correlated names was decisive, reflecting company-specific earnings momentum rather than sector tailwinds.
The next scheduled event is May 28. With guidance raised, shorts retreating, and target prices clustered just above the current price, the question that print will need to answer is whether the Q2 acceleration — particularly in systems and EMEA — sustains into the back half of fiscal 2026.
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