F5 Networks’ shares dipped 9 percent after the market closed on Wednesday as the networking technology vendor missed analysts’ revenue estimates in its forecast.

F5 reported revenue of $501.3 million in its fourth quarter, which ended Sept. 30. That was up 8 percent from the same quarter a year ago, but missed Capital IQ analysts' projection of $506.4 million.

On the plus side, F5 reported earnings of $1.83 per share, which exceeded the analysts' projection of $1.74 per share.

But F5 provided a light guidance for its first quarter: earnings per share of $1.58 to $1.61 and revenue in the range of $480 million to $490 million. Dougherty & Company analyst Catharine Trebnik had projected revenues of $506 million and profits of $1.68 per share.

“From a regional perspective, U.S. enterprise had a good quarter,” said F5 Networks CEO and Chairman Manny Rivelo during the earnings call. “However, overall America’s bookings were behind our internal expectations. We attribute this to the market volatility and the currency fluctuations in Latin America and Canada and some delays in project driven service provider transactions.”

The Americas’ revenue grew 7 percent year-over-year and accounted for 58 percent of F5’s revenues. Revenues in the United States were the strongest, but they were partially offset by a difficult macro environment as well as slower sales in Latin America and Canada. EMEA grew 11 percent year-over-year and accounted for 23 percent of F5’s overall revenue. APAC accounted for 15 percent of revenue while increasing 12 percent from the same quarter a year ago. Japan, which accounted for 4 percent of revenues, was down 6 percent from a year ago.

Rivelo was pleased with the sales of F5’s security products during the fourth quarter, driven by wins in the government, financial services, and service provider sectors. Approximately 41 percent of total product sales for F5’s fourth quarter included one or more security products, which was a 22 percent increase from a year ago.

“We continue to diversify, with more than one-third of our revenue coming from software sales, driven largely by the demand for security and the uptake for our good/better/best licensing, and continued strength with our virtual sales additions” Rivelo said.

While some analysts believe that the application delivery controller (ADC) segment is reaching maturity, Rivelo said year-to-date that F5 had increased its virtual market share by 13 points and the overall ADC market share by 3 points for a total market share of 49 percent.