On September 2, F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) announced a key integration with MuleSoft, a Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) company, federating F5 AI Guardrails directly into MuleSoft’s Agent Fabric Omni Gateway. As enterprises rapidly scale agentic AI capabilities, security teams face growing governance gaps and risks from prompt injection, data leakage, and toxic outputs. This native integration gives security and platform engineering teams centralized policy enforcement, proactive threat mitigation, and low-touch policy tuning without forcing organizations to re-architect existing infrastructure.
While the partnership strengthens both ecosystems, examining their latest financials reveals two enterprise software giants moving at distinctly different scales and growth trajectories.
Financial Performance Comparison
F5, Inc. reported strong Q3 FY26 results, generating $865 million in revenue (up 11% year-over-year). Revenue growth was anchored by a 19% jump in product revenue, led by a 32% surge in systems revenue ($240 million). F5’s bottom line remained exceptionally robust, expanding non-GAAP operating margin to 35.0% and delivering non-GAAP net income of $272 million ($4.73 per diluted share, up from $4.16).
Salesforce operated at a much larger scale in its record Q2 FY27, generating $11.3 billion in quarterly revenue (up 11% year-over-year). Growth was fueled by subscription and support revenue of $10.8 billion and expanding adoption of its Agentforce platform, whose annual recurring revenue (ARR) neared $3.9 billion. Salesforce posted a non-GAAP operating margin of 34.1%, and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $5.90, while raising its full-year FY27 revenue guidance to $46.1B–$46.4B.
While both companies run near-identical, highly profitable non-GAAP operating margins (~34%–35%), Salesforce leads overall financial health due to its massive free cash flow generation, cRPO backlog of $33.5 billion, and broader ecosystem dominance.
Bull and Bear Case
F5’s bull case centers on growing enterprise demand for AI infrastructure security, with its high-margin hardware/software mix and specialized AI Guardrails positioning allowing it to capture niche security spending without significant overhead. However, systems revenue can be cyclical, and hardware refresh cycles could slow if enterprise IT budgets tighten.
Salesforce’s bull case rests on its positioning as a leading agentic enterprise platform, supported by 210% year-over-year Agentforce ARR growth and 14% growth in cRPO, highlighting customer stickiness and expanding seat monetization. On the downside, Salesforce’s top-line growth has moderated to 11% year-over-year, with momentum partly supported by incremental revenue from acquisitions such as Informatica.
Insider Monkey’s Hedge Fund Data Analysis
Institutional conviction appears to favor Salesforce’s broader AI narrative over F5’s more focused security model. F5 saw hedge fund holders decline from 52 in Q1 2026 to 49 in Q2 2026, with Jericho Capital Asset Management holding 2.12 million shares valued at $881 million after reducing its position by 20%, while AQR Capital Management increased its stake by 36% to 925,000 shares valued at $385 million.
Salesforce, meanwhile, maintained substantially broader hedge fund interest, with 99 holdings in Q2 2026 versus 101 in Q1. Major holders included Harris Associates, which held 16.15 million shares valued at $2.53 billion after increasing its position by 9%, and Arrowstreet Capital, which held 13.28 million shares valued at $2.08 billion after increasing its stake by 5%.
Conclusion & What Investors Should Watch Next
Both companies are executing well, but Salesforce stands as the stronger overall financial compounder due to its massive recurring revenue base and core role in enterprise AI orchestration. Going forward, investors should track whether F5, Inc. can convert its MuleSoft security integration into sustained high-margin software growth, while monitoring Salesforce, Inc.’s ability to convert Agentforce activity into higher net new annual order value (NNAOV) across its customer base.
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