Key Highlights

● Revenue was $865 million, up 11% from $780 million.

● Systems revenue rose 32% to $240 million.

● Non-GAAP net income was $272 million, or $4.73 per diluted share.

● The fiscal 2026 revenue growth outlook rose to about 9% to 10%.

Why the update matters

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) reported on 27 July 2026 that revenue for its fiscal third quarter, which ended on 30 June 2026, was $865 million, up 11% from $780 million a year earlier. The company also raised its fiscal 2026 outlook, lifting expected revenue growth to about 9% to 10% from 7% to 8%, so the quarter changed the company's own view of the full year. F5's fiscal year ends on 30 September.

Business and sector

F5 provides technology that delivers, secures and optimises applications and application programming interfaces across data centres, public clouds and edge environments. Its customers use its products to balance traffic between servers, protect web applications and manage the security of application traffic. The company sells hardware-based systems, software and subscriptions, and global services such as maintenance and support. It competes in application delivery and security against specialist vendors and the networking and cloud-service businesses of larger technology groups.

Chief Executive Officer François Locoh-Donou described the quarter as "another outstanding quarter with 19% product revenue growth driving 11% total revenue growth year over year."

Latest reported results

Systems revenue was $240 million, up 32%, and software revenue was $223 million, up 7%. Together these form product revenue, which grew 19%. Global services revenue was $402 million, up 3%. The three lines add up to the reported total revenue of $865 million, and reporting them separately shows which part drives growth.

GAAP net income was $208 million, or $3.62 per diluted share, compared with $190 million, or $3.25, in the prior-year quarter. Non-GAAP net income was $272 million, or $4.73 per diluted share, against $243 million, or $4.16.

Financial performance and industry context

The mix of results is instructive. Systems growth of 32% was the fastest of the three revenue lines, while software and services grew at single-digit rates. As a result, the lines that produce recurring and subscription-type revenue grew more slowly than the hardware-based line, so the company's growth in the quarter depended heavily on systems demand.

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, F5 guided to revenue of $870 million to $890 million and non-GAAP earnings per share of $4.14 to $4.26. For the full year, it now expects revenue growth of about 9% to 10%, compared with an earlier range of 7% to 8%, and non-GAAP earnings per share of $17.21 to $17.33, up from a previous range of $16.25 to $16.55.

The fourth-quarter revenue guide is only modestly above the third-quarter result, with a midpoint of $880 million about 2% higher than the $865 million just reported, and the guided non-GAAP earnings per share is below the $4.73 reported for the third quarter.

Risks and uncertainties

Reliance on systems growth carries the risk that demand reflects the timing of customer hardware refresh cycles, which may not be repeated. Software and services growth of 7% and 3% respectively shows that the recurring part of the business is expanding less quickly than the total. The competitive landscape includes cloud providers and security specialists, and customer spending on infrastructure can change rapidly with the economic environment. Supply chain constraints, component costs and tariffs may also affect hardware margins.

Fourth-quarter test of the raised view

F5 is next due to report fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year results. Readers should compare the outcome with the guided revenue of $870 million to $890 million and non-GAAP earnings per share of $4.14 to $4.26, and watch fiscal 2027 commentary on systems demand, software growth and the pace of any move towards subscription models.