f5-fullcolor-lgLongtime F5 Networks CEO John McAdam closed out his 15-year career with a strong earnings report on Wednesday, beating Wall Street expectations and sending the company’s stock climbing in after hours trading.

The company reported $483.6 million in revenue for Q3, up 10 percent from the same time period last year. Earnings per share reached $1.67 this quarter, edging out analyst expectations of $1.60.

The company also said it has brought on a new executive vice president of human resources as it looks to ramp up hiring from 75 new workers this quarter to 125 hires in the next, an increase of more than 60 percent.

The company attributed the success to its increasingly successful software side of the business, noting sales of standalone software and apps built for its own hardware have more than doubled over the past three years.

“As more of our customers deploy hybrid solutions and adoption of our software modules increases, we believe this trend will continue,” newly minted F5 CEO Manny Rivelo said in the earnings release.

F5 CEO John McAdam in the KIRO Radio studios (Erynn Rose photo).
F5 CEO John McAdam in the KIRO Radio studios (Erynn Rose photo).

Rivelo, who has been with the company since 2011, took over as CEO on July 1, the day after the quarter for this report came to a close.

So Q3 represents the final test for McAdam, his predecessor who led the company since 2000. Under his watch, F5 grew from a 500-person company doing $100 million in yearly revenue to an industry leader with nearly 4,000 employees and annual revenues of more than $1.7 billion.

 

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