Craig Hallum Issues Positive Forecast for A10 Networks (NYSE:ATEN) Stock Price

A10 Networks (NYSE:ATEN) had its target price upped by equities researchers at Craig Hallum from $16.00 to $18.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “hold” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Craig Hallum’s price target would suggest a potential downside of 12.74% from the company’s previous close.

ATEN has been the topic of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com raised A10 Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. BWS Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $24.00 price objective on shares of A10 Networks in a research note on Wednesday.

A10 Networks Trading Up 1.7 %

ATEN traded up $0.35 on Wednesday, hitting $20.63. 398,973 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 610,259. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $18.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.76. The firm has a market cap of $1.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.78 and a beta of 1.14. A10 Networks has a one year low of $12.27 and a one year high of $20.80.

A10 Networks (NYSE:ATEN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.25 earnings per share (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%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that A10 Networks will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at A10 Networks

In other A10 Networks news, EVP Karen S. Thomas sold 6,162 shares of A10 Networks stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.70, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 20.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 5.82% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Squarepoint Ops LLC acquired a new position in A10 Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $280,000. Millennium Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of A10 Networks in the second quarter worth about $9,562,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in shares of A10 Networks by 2.9% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 27,239 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $377,000 after buying an additional 776 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in shares of A10 Networks by 11.6% in the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 127,476 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,841,000 after buying an additional 13,272 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its position in A10 Networks by 20.7% during the third quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 94,064 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,358,000 after purchasing an additional 16,128 shares in the last quarter. 98.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

A10 Networks Company Profile

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.