With F5 Stock Down 27% In A Month, How Confident Are You?

F5 (FFIV) stock is down 27.4% in 21 trading days. Already own the stock? You might want to consider holding it. Planning to buy? This might be your opportunity. Consider the following data:

• Size: F5 is a $14 Bil company with $3.0 Bil in revenue currently trading at $240.77.
• Fundamentals: Last 12 month revenue growth of 8.9% and operating margin of 25.2%.
• Liquidity: Has Debt to Equity ratio of 0.02 and Cash to Assets ratio of 0.23
• Valuation: F5 stock is currently trading at P/E multiple of 20.8 and P/EBIT multiple of 18.2
• Has one instance since 2010 where it dipped >30% in < 30 days and subsequently returned 32.1% within a year. See FFIV Dip Buy Analysis.

While we like to buy dips if the fundamentals check out – for FFIV, see Buy or Sell FFIV Stock – we are wary of falling knives. Specifically, it is worth trying to answer if things get really bad, and FFIV drops another 20-30% to $169 levels, will we be able to hold on to the stock? What is the worst case scenario? We call it downturn resilience. Turns out, the stock has fared worse than the S&P 500 index during various economic downturns. We assess this based on both (a) how much the stock fell and, (b) how quickly it recovered.

A single stock can be risky, but there is a huge value to a broader, diversified approach. Quiz time: Over the last 5 years, which index do you think the Trefis High Quality Portfolio outperformed — the S&P 500, the S&P 1500 Equal Weighted, or both? The answer might surprise you. See how our advisory framework helps stack the odds in your favor.

Below are the details, but before that, as a quick background: FFIV provides multi-cloud application security, delivery solutions, and professional services to ensure the performance, availability, and protection of network applications, servers, and storage systems for large enterprises and institutions.

2022 Inflation Shock

• FFIV stock fell 47.4% from a high of $247.78 on 29 December 2021 to $130.29 on 25 April 2023 vs. a peak-to-trough decline of 25.4% for the S&P 500.
• However, the stock fully recovered to its pre-Crisis peak by 25 November 2024
• Since then, the stock increased to a high of $343.17 on 14 October 2025 , and currently trades at $240.77

 
2020 Covid Pandemic

• FFIV stock fell 35.7% from a high of $140.76 on 2 January 2020 to $90.55 on 18 March 2020 vs. a peak-to-trough decline of 33.9% for the S&P 500.
• However, the stock fully recovered to its pre-Crisis peak by 28 April 2020

 
2018 Correction

• FFIV stock fell 38.8% from a high of $199.42 on 28 September 2018 to $122.07 on 27 August 2019 vs. a peak-to-trough decline of 19.8% for the S&P 500.
• However, the stock fully recovered to its pre-Crisis peak by 21 January 2021

 
2008 Global Financial Crisis

• FFIV stock fell 60.4% from a high of $45.60 on 27 July 2007 to $18.05 on 7 April 2008 vs. a peak-to-trough decline of 56.8% for the S&P 500.
• However, the stock fully recovered to its pre-Crisis peak by 22 October 2009

 
It is a good thing to keep in mind how low FFIV could go during a downturn. And you should also check how the stock fared when compared with the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio, with a collection of 30 stocks, has a track record of comfortably outperforming its benchmark that includes all 3 — the S&P 500, S&P mid-cap, and Russell 2000 indices. Why is that? As a group, HQ Portfolio stocks provided better returns with less risk versus the benchmark index; less of a roller-coaster ride, as evident in HQ Portfolio performance metrics.