A whole slew of brokerage news came out for F5 Networks, Inc. (FFIV: sentiment, chart, options) today, after the company last night announced preliminary results for its first quarter of fiscal 2009, ended Dec. 31. Specifically, the company stated that revenue for the quarter is expected to be $165.6 million, below the company's guidance of $172 million to $174 million.

However, despite the lowered expectations and numerous bearish brokerage actions, shares of the company have rallied more than 4% today. Included in the analysts' actions were the following:

• The stock's price target was slashed from $29 to $27 at Barclays.
• BMO cut the stock from "outperform" to "market perform."
• Lazard cut the equity's price target from $28 to $26, but maintained its "buy" rating.
• Wedbush downgraded the shares from "buy" to "hold."

During the past 20 trading days, the stock has trailed the S&P 500 Index (SPX) by nearly 10%, but recently it has been able to find support from its 10-day moving average. This trendline previously acted as resistance, and could reverse roles to help propel the equity higher in the near term.

During the past 10 trading days on the International Securities Exchange (ISE), bearish bets have been mounting. The stock's 10-day put/call ratio is docked at 1.07, indicating traders have purchased more puts than calls during the past 2 weeks. This ratio ranks higher than 71% of all similar readings, pointing to a recent affinity for bearish bets.

Additionally, short interest is extremely high on FFIV. These bears have sold short more than 8.86 million shares, accounting for more than 11% of the company's float. With the stock in an uptrend, if these pessimistic investors begin to buy back their shares, it could take nearly 4 days at the stock's average daily trading volume for these bets to unwind. This could provide ample fuel for a short-covering rally and add more buying pressure to the shares.

In the short term, followers of FFIV should be aware of the stock's progress between the 22-to-24 region. A close above this level could help unwind pessimism, pushing the stock higher; however, a close below this level could spell trouble for the shares.