Stock

F5

0IL6.L
75
Software - Infrastructure · Technology
Price
470.92 GBp
+4.06 (+0.87%)
Market Cap
£26.57B
Exchange
London Stock Exchange
Winston Score
75
Winston is happy
A high-quality business with solid fundamentals.
Data as of Oct 8, 2026 · filings through Jun 30, 2026

§How the score breaks down

Quality
Exceptional
27/30
Growth
Strong
16/20
Cash Flow
Exceptional
10/10
Stability
Exceptional
10/10
Valuation
Good
6/10
Ownership
Weak
2/15
Dividends
Not counted
n/a

71 of 95 counted points = Winston Score 75. Pillars marked n/a do not apply to this company and are left out of the total.

Share count falling — buybacks

−5.9% over 4y

The company has reduced its share count over this period, returning value to shareholders through buybacks.

Diluted shares outstanding: 62.1M (2021) → 58.4M (2025)

§Winston Score History

The full picture

F5, Inc. makes software and hardware that helps companies keep their websites and apps running fast, safe, and available. Its main products manage and secure the flow of internet traffic between users and the servers that run applications. Large banks, hospitals, government agencies, and big corporations are its core customers.

F5 earns money through a mix of software subscriptions, hardware sales, and ongoing support contracts. It operates globally, with a strong presence in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, and generates roughly $2.8 billion in annual revenue. Its moat comes from deep integration into customers' existing IT infrastructure, which makes switching to a competitor costly and time-consuming. The key growth driver is the shift toward software-based and cloud-delivered security products, which carry higher margins than traditional hardware — but the risk is that large cloud providers like AWS and Microsoft are building competing traffic-management tools directly into their own platforms.

Growth Profile

When traditional metrics don't capture the full picture, these are the signals growth stock investors use instead.

Revenue Growth

+10.9% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Steady revenue growth

EPS Growth

+11.6% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Steady EPS growth

R&D Spend

$540M/ year

↑ Rising (+11% vs prior year)

17.5% of revenue

In line with sector average (15%)

Investing heavily in future products and technology

Insider Activity

0.6%ownership

→ Flat

Insider ownership roughly steady over the past year

Cash Position

Cash flow positive

$1.9B cash & investments

Quarterly Free Cash Flow

↑ Burn rate improving

Company generates more cash than it spends — no dilution risk from fundraising

Heavy R&D investment

F5 is putting 17% of revenue into R&D and that number is rising. And they're generating enough cash to self-fund it.

The Winston Score above measures business quality today. Growth stocks often score lower because they invest in the future rather than maximising current profits. These metrics show what matters most for evaluating that future.

Score breakdown

Every number that matters to educated investors.

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Quality

Profit per sale
Gross Margin
83.4%
Premium pricing power — 83.4% gross margin
Profit after running costs
Operating Margin
24.6%
Excellent — 24.6% operating margin
Return on the money invested
ROCE
20.9%
Exceptional — 20.9% return on capital

ROIC between 15% and 25%. Every dollar invested in the business earns 15 to 25 cents back per year.

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Growth

Sales growth
Sales YoY
+9.4%
Steady sales growth (+9.4% YoY)
Profit growth
EPS YoY
+10.6%
Earnings growing (+10.6% YoY)

Healthy double-digit earnings growth — what compounders look like.

How steady the profit is
EPS Consistency
8/8 quarters
Every recent quarter grew earnings vs last year

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Cash Flow

Profit that turns into cash
Cash Conversion
144%
Turns 144% of profit into real cash
Spare cash per sale
FCF Margin
29.3%
Converts sales into free cash efficiently (29.3%)

Free cash flow margin above 20%. Out of every $100 in sales, more than $20 is real cash they keep.

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Stability

What it owes vs what it owns
Debt / Equity
0.01
Conservative — low debt load (0.01)
Covers its interest
Interest Cover
100.00x
—
Comfortably covers interest (100.0x)

Interest coverage above 8. Profits cover interest many times over.

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Valuation

Price vs profit
P/E Ratio (TTM)
36.7x
Pricey — P/E 36.7

P/E over 35. The market is pricing in heavy, sustained growth.

Cheaper or dearer next year
P/E vs Forward
+13.8
GROWING
Earnings expected to grow meaningfully — cheaper on forward P/E (36.7 → 22.9)

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Dividends

Not applicable for this business.
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