A10 Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ATEN) Short Interest Up 30.2% in March

A10 Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ATEN) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,360,000 shares, an increase of 30.2% from the March 15th total of 2,580,000 shares. Approximately 4.9% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 696,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.8 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, BWS Financial boosted their price target on A10 Networks from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th.

Insider Transactions at A10 Networks

In related news, CFO Brian Becker sold 4,348 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.21, for a total value of $57,437.08. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $677,659.79. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other A10 Networks news, CFO Brian Becker sold 4,348 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.21, for a total value of $57,437.08. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $677,659.79. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Dhrupad Trivedi sold 8,809 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.03, for a total transaction of $123,590.27. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 483,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,776,560.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 152,828 shares of company stock worth $2,032,990. Company insiders own 5.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in A10 Networks by 83.9% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,470,999 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $58,883,000 after buying an additional 2,040,007 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD bought a new position in A10 Networks in the third quarter worth approximately $14,001,000. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in A10 Networks by 10.2% in the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 11,378,230 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $150,989,000 after purchasing an additional 1,050,459 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its holdings in A10 Networks by 626.2% during the 2nd quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 864,927 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $12,437,000 after purchasing an additional 745,830 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in A10 Networks by 37.4% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,486,953 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,753,000 after purchasing an additional 676,509 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.61% of the company’s stock.

A10 Networks Stock Performance

ATEN opened at $13.10 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $975.95 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.72 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a fifty day moving average of $13.45 and a 200 day moving average of $12.87. A10 Networks has a fifty-two week low of $10.03 and a fifty-two week high of $15.99.

A10 Networks (NYSE:ATEN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $70.42 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $76.95 million. A10 Networks had a return on equity of 21.67% and a net margin of 15.88%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that A10 Networks will post 0.66 earnings per share for the current year.

A10 Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 16th were paid a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. A10 Networks’s payout ratio is 45.28%.

About A10 Networks

A10 Networks, Inc provides networking solutions in the Americas, Japan, rest of Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company offers Thunder Application Delivery Controller that provides advanced server load balancing; Thunder Carrier Grade Networking, which provides standards-compliant address and protocol translation services between varying types of internet protocol addresses; Thunder Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Insight that decrypts SSL-encrypted traffic and forwards it to a third-party security device for deep packet inspection; and Thunder Convergent Firewall, which addresses multiple critical security capabilities in one package.