In today's world, most companies span several regions and sell across the world. As Foolish colleague Morgan Housel notes, 10 years ago, less than a third of S&P 500 revenue came from abroad. Today, that makes up half the S&P's sales and continues to grow.

And that number is growing. The truth is, investors regularly underestimate how much demand comes from abroad. More importantly, for large, multinational corporations that have already established a presence in their home markets, much of their future growth comes from abroad.

With that in mind, today we're looking at F5 Networks (Nasdaq: FFIV). We'll examine not only where its sales and earnings come from, but how its sales abroad have changed over time.

Where F5 Network's sales were four years ago
Four years ago, F5 Networks collected 57% of its sales from the Americas.

Source: S&P Capital IQ.

Where F5's sales are today
Today, F5 Networks is bucking the trend of global sales outpacing sales to the United States. The company now sees 59% of its sales to the U.S.

Segment

4-Year Sales Growth

Americas

129%

EMEA

185%

Japan

15%

Asia Pacific

129%

Source: S&P Capital IQ.

Overall, F5 has seen exceptional growth rates across almost all geographies. The sole laggard is Japan, where sales increased only 15% over the past four years. With Europe -- along with the Middle East and Africa -- still contributing only 23% of sales F5 should be able to continue making in-roads in the region in spite of broader macroeconomic worries.

Competitor checkup
One last point to check is how F5's footprint compares with some of its peers and industry rivals:

Company

Geography With Most Sales

Percent of Sales

F5 Networks

Americas

59%*

Juniper (NYSE: JNPR)

United States

46%

Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO)

United States

53%

Riverbed (Nasdaq: RVBD)

United States

53%

Source: S&P Capital IQ. *Fiscal Year 2010.

Overall, F5 has slightly lower exposure than its peers in the broader networking industry. That should present an opportunity as international rivals are few and far between, and exploding levels of data are common across all geographies. As the best-in-breed player in load balancing, F5 should continue seeing high growth rates not just in the United States, but across the world.

Keep searching
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