AQR Capital Management LLC Acquires 226,231 Shares of F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in F5, Inc. by 37.5% in the first quarter, owning approximately 1.44% of the company valued at $216.76 million.
• F5 reported quarterly earnings of $4.16 EPS, surpassing expectations and reflecting a 12.2% year-over-year revenue growth to $780.37 million.
• Multiple analysts have revised F5's price targets, with Barclays raising theirs to $321.00 and Piper Sandler to $355.00, amidst mixed ratings ranging from "buy" to "hold".

AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 37.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 828,900 shares of the network technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 226,231 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned about 1.44% of F5 worth $216,757,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Colonial Trust Co SC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 685 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $172,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 451 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $120,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Horizon Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 845 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $225,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its position in shares of F5 by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 11,210 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,985,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC now owns 1,298 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $346,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FFIV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on F5 from $304.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on F5 in a research report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $309.89.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total value of $440,295.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,013 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,471,465.89. This represents a 23.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 5,297 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.24, for a total value of $1,706,905.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 23,591 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,601,963.84. The trade was a 18.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 10,744 shares of company stock valued at $3,347,605. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of FFIV stock traded up $1.54 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $315.89. The stock had a trading volume of 310,965 shares, compared to its average volume of 403,783. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $308.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $287.04. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $197.34 and a one year high of $334.00. The firm has a market cap of $18.15 billion, a PE ratio of 27.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.63 and a beta of 1.08.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.67. F5 had a return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 22.06%.The company had revenue of $780.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.64 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.36 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its FY 2025 guidance at 15.240-15.380 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 3.870-3.990 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.