F5 Networks earnings: The Seattle-based company reported $652 million in revenue, up 12% year-over-year, for its fiscal third quarter ended June 30. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $2.76, up from $2.18. Analysts expected revenue of $638 million and earnings per share of $2.46. Shares were up more than 5% in after-hours trading.
Growth drivers: F5 CEO François Locoh-Donou described the results as “very strong.” He pointed to two tailwinds for F5: applications generating more engagement, and customers accelerating adoption of modern application architectures. “With our expanded application security and delivery portfolio, we are uniquely positioned to solve our customers’ most significant modern and traditional application challenges on premises, in the cloud, and across multiple clouds,” he said in a statement.
F5 transformation: The company has been moving aggressively into software and services, expanding beyond its traditional networking hardware business. It has spent more than $2 billion over the past two years on acquisitions, swooping up companies including Volterra, Nginx, and Shape Security. F5’s stock price has spiked since the pandemic started in March 2020, and is now trading at more than $190/share, up nearly 10% this year.
