AQR Capital Management LLC Acquires 214,351 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 48.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 652,972 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 214,351 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC owned about 1.11% of F5 worth $111,932,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in F5 by 6,700.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $146,118,000 after purchasing an additional 835,912 shares in the last quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP increased its position in shares of F5 by 38.3% during the fourth quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $204,986,000 after acquiring an additional 317,263 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth $45,937,000. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in F5 by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $294,392,000 after acquiring an additional 162,820 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its stake in F5 by 49.8% in the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 424,249 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $73,046,000 after purchasing an additional 141,040 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

F5 Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of F5 stock traded down $2.34 during trading on Friday, hitting $219.00. 644,885 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 519,111. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $145.45 and a 1-year high of $223.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $197.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $184.37.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $695.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $686.06 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.03% and a net margin of 19.94%. The business's revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.46 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 10.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total transaction of $249,327.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,462 shares in the company, valued at $20,885,390.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total value of $249,327.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,462 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,885,390.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.20, for a total value of $88,100.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,108 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,481,229.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 7,871 shares of company stock valued at $1,508,705 over the last ninety days. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on FFIV. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on F5 from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of F5 from $185.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $204.56.

About F5

F5, Inc provides multi-cloud application security and delivery solutions in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. The company's distributed cloud services enable its customers to deploy, secure, and operate applications in any architecture, from on-premises to the public cloud.