F5, Inc.

F5 is a technology company specialising in application delivery and security, helping enterprises manage, optimise and protect the traffic that flows to their software and websites. Once known mainly for hardware load balancers, it has shifted toward software and subscription services as workloads move to the cloud and multi-cloud environments. F5 does not pay a dividend, choosing instead to return capital through share repurchases and to reinvest in its software transition. There is no dividend history to speak of, so the investment case rests entirely on earnings growth, buybacks and the success of its move toward recurring revenue. For income-focused investors this offers nothing, and its profile is that of a growth-and-buyback technology holding rather than a dividend payer.