EL7.AI
StocksMedium•28 October 2026•
3 min read

F5 Shares Fall 19.87% as Investors Eye 8% to 9% Revenue Growth in 2027

Key Facts

1F5 shares fell 19.87% on October 28, 2026.
2F5 expects revenue growth of 8% to 9% in fiscal 2027.
3Piper Sandler downgraded the stock to “Neutral” and kept its price target at $461.
4F5 forecast gross margin of 80.5% to 82.5% in fiscal 2027, compared with 84% in the reported fourth quarter.

F5 shares fell 19.87% on October 28, according to a TipRanks report, after the company announced its fiscal 2027 results and outlook and Piper Sandler downgraded the stock. F5 forecast revenue growth of 8% to 9% in the next fiscal year, with adjusted earnings per share of $18.00 to $18.30. The midpoint of the earnings-per-share range is $18.15, above analysts’ estimate of $18.08, according to TipRanks’ account of the company’s guidance. Revenue and adjusted earnings per share in the fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 results exceeded Wall Street estimates, the same report said. But the annual guidance, alongside the downgrade, came as the stock fell sharply in the session.

Piper Sandler downgraded F5 from “Overweight” to “Neutral,” while keeping its price target at $461, according to Investing.com. The firm attributed its decision to the approaching end of the iSeries hardware refresh opportunity, the possibility that growth could peak, and a lack of a near-term meaningful catalyst. The growth peak is a possibility cited by the firm among its reasons, not an F5 announcement that its growth cycle is ending. The company’s fiscal 2027 guidance also still points to revenue growth of 8% to 9%. The annual guidance puts Piper Sandler’s downgrade in the context of concerns about the pace of future growth and the iSeries refresh opportunity, rather than as evidence that the company’s growth has stopped.

The guidance also included an adjusted gross margin of 80.5% to 82.5% for fiscal 2027, compared with a margin of 84% in the reported fourth quarter, according to Investing.com. The report linked the expected margin pressure to higher component costs and increased investment in sales capacity. The wide forecast range means the company’s profitability outlook includes margin pressure compared with the reported quarter, even though the midpoint of the annual earnings-per-share range exceeds the analysts’ estimate cited in the TipRanks report. Before the market opened on October 28, the stock was down 6.6%, according to an Investing.com report published that day. TipRanks later reported a decline of 19.87% at the time its report was written, showing how the drop widened during the day’s trading.

The decline came with elevated trading activity, with about 2.21 million shares traded, compared with a daily average of about 564,000 shares over the previous three months, according to TipRanks. By contrast, the Nasdaq rose 0.5% and the S&P 500 gained 0.2% on October 28, according to Investing.com, which described the stock’s weakness as company-specific. Before the decline, F5 shares had risen about 80% since the start of the year and reached $459.36, near their 52-week high of $483, according to data Investing.com attributed to Piper Sandler. The firm kept its price target at $461 after the downgrade, while Evercore ISI raised its target to $500 and maintained an “Outperform” rating. Evercore ISI cited AI-driven growth and fourth-quarter results, offering a contrasting assessment to Piper Sandler’s position.