A10 Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ATEN) Short Interest Up 34.0% in February

A10 Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ATEN) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,970,000 shares, an increase of 34.0% from the February 13th total of 1,470,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 787,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days. Currently, 2.8% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

A10 Networks Stock Performance

ATEN traded down $0.41 on Tuesday, reaching $17.34. The company had a trading volume of 360,356 shares, compared to its average volume of 718,860. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.17. The company has a market cap of $1.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.74 and a beta of 1.17. A10 Networks has a 52-week low of $12.27 and a 52-week high of $21.90.

A10 Networks (NYSE:ATEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.03. A10 Networks had a net margin of 19.16% and a return on equity of 23.44%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that A10 Networks will post 0.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

A10 Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. A10 Networks’s dividend payout ratio is 35.82%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Craig Hallum increased their price target on shares of A10 Networks from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of A10 Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, BWS Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $24.00 target price on shares of A10 Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ATEN. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in shares of A10 Networks by 364.8% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 683,711 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $12,580,000 after purchasing an additional 536,600 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of A10 Networks by 350.4% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 685,720 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $12,618,000 after purchasing an additional 533,482 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of A10 Networks in the fourth quarter worth approximately $7,202,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of A10 Networks by 11.2% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,479,989 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $45,632,000 after purchasing an additional 249,145 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new position in shares of A10 Networks in the fourth quarter worth approximately $4,236,000. Institutional investors own 98.61% of the company’s stock.

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.