A10 Networks (NYSE:ATEN) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

A10 Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ATEN)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $16.86, but opened at $17.76. A10 Networks shares last traded at $17.58, with a volume of 476,318 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on ATEN. StockNews.com raised shares of A10 Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. BWS Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $24.00 price objective on shares of A10 Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Craig Hallum upped their price objective on shares of A10 Networks from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th.

A10 Networks Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.93 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $19.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.19.

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, 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%. On average, analysts expect that A10 Networks, Inc. will post 0.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

A10 Networks Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of A10 Networks by 58.6% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 155,274 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,857,000 after buying an additional 57,354 shares in the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of A10 Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of A10 Networks by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 191,390 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,522,000 after buying an additional 10,005 shares in the last quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new position in shares of A10 Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $206,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC lifted its stake in shares of A10 Networks by 363.8% in the fourth quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 119,877 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,206,000 after buying an additional 94,032 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.