Why F5 Networks, Inc. Jumped This Morning

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What happened

Shares of F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) rose as much as 11.3% in Thursday morning's session, following the release of strong fourth-quarter results.

So what

In the fourth quarter, F5 saw adjusted earnings rising 15% year over year to $2.11 per diluted share. Revenue increased 4.8%, stopping at $525.3 million.

The data security and application delivery specialist exceeded Wall Street's expectations across the board. Analysts would have settled for earnings of approximately $1.94 per share on sales near $520 million.

Now what

Including today's pop, F5 investors have seen their shares rising 35% so far in 2016. Data security is a hot item again, punctuated by a high-profile denial-of-service attack taking down several popular online services last Friday. F5 played an important role in recovering from that attack, putting its cloud-based Silverline mitigation product to good use.

If you'll allow me to get a little bit technical here, management sees plenty of growth opportunity in the security market. Says F5 Networks CEO John McAdam:

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Anders Bylund has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.