A10 Networks (NYSE:ATEN) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

A10 Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ATEN)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $20.28, but opened at $18.65. A10 Networks shares last traded at $20.19, with a volume of 88,641 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ATEN. BWS Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $24.00 target price on shares of A10 Networks in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com upgraded A10 Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Craig Hallum increased their price objective on A10 Networks from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday.

A10 Networks Stock Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average of $18.58 and a 200 day moving average of $15.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.91 and a beta of 1.14.

A10 Networks (NYSE:ATEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.03. A10 Networks had a return on equity of 22.69% and a net margin of 19.29%. On average, equities analysts predict that A10 Networks, Inc. will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

A10 Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th were paid a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. A10 Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.82%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other A10 Networks news, EVP Karen S. Thomas sold 6,162 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.70, for a total value of $102,905.40. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,799 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $397,443.30. This trade represents a 20.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 5.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of A10 Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of A10 Networks by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,662,442 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $24,010,000 after purchasing an additional 89,175 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of A10 Networks by 234.1% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 152,238 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,198,000 after purchasing an additional 106,672 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC increased its position in shares of A10 Networks by 262.1% during the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 56,245 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $812,000 after purchasing an additional 40,712 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of A10 Networks by 11.8% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 389,088 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $5,618,000 after purchasing an additional 41,141 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Systematic Financial Management LP purchased a new position in A10 Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,073,000. 98.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.