Principal Financial Group Inc. Acquires 41,141 Shares of A10 Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ATEN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of A10 Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ATEN - Free Report) by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 389,088 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 41,141 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.52% of A10 Networks worth $5,618,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in A10 Networks by 7.4% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 14,226 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $195,000 after buying an additional 984 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in A10 Networks by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,103,358 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $97,245,000 after buying an additional 35,010 shares in the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its holdings in A10 Networks by 12.9% during the first quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 19,961 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $273,000 after buying an additional 2,286 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in A10 Networks by 2.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,242,792 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $17,015,000 after buying an additional 34,115 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Comerica Bank grew its holdings in A10 Networks by 59.7% during the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 50,888 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $697,000 after buying an additional 19,021 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.61% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ATEN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Craig Hallum downgraded A10 Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $16.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, November 8th. BWS Financial boosted their price objective on A10 Networks from $17.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, StockNews.com raised A10 Networks from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th.

A10 Networks Trading Up 0.5 %

ATEN stock opened at $16.48 on Thursday. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $14.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $14.22. A10 Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $11.99 and a 1-year high of $16.92. The stock has a market cap of $1.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.60 and a beta of 1.11.

A10 Networks (NYSE:ATEN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.02. A10 Networks had a return on equity of 22.69% and a net margin of 19.29%. The business had revenue of $66.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $63.78 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.12 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that A10 Networks, Inc. will post 0.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

A10 Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.46%. A10 Networks's dividend payout ratio is presently 35.82%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Karen S. Thomas sold 6,162 shares of the company's 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,799 shares of the company's stock, valued at $397,443.30. This represents a 20.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 5.82% of the company's stock.

A10 Networks 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.