A10 Networks heads into its April 30 Q1 2026 earnings report with short sellers adding pressure just as the stock hits its highest level in months.
Short interest has become the sharpest signal heading into the print. It climbed 8.2% over the past week to 7.8% of the free float — a meaningful build for a mid-cap networking name. Days to cover stretches to 6.6 on the official FINRA reading, suggesting any squeeze dynamic would take real time to unwind. What makes the setup notable is that borrowing remains unusually cheap at 0.48% cost to borrow, and borrow availability is loose — well above the levels that would indicate a crowded short trade. The shorts are growing, but they face no meaningful squeeze pressure in the lending market.
The price action sharpens the contradiction. ATEN has rallied 26% over the past month to $28.13, outpacing correlated peers like TENB and RDWR, which gained around 3-5% on the week. That divergence means short sellers are sitting on mounting paper losses — yet the options market is barely reacting. The put/call ratio edged up to 0.011, roughly two standard deviations above its 20-day average, but the absolute level is still extremely low and far from the 52-week high of 0.33. Options traders are not hedging. They appear to be riding the momentum, not fading it.
The analyst community is more divided. Sidoti & Co. downgraded to Neutral on April 20, citing valuation concerns after the stock ran — a timely call made with the stock still in the high $20s. Mizuho, meanwhile, raised its target to $27 while keeping a Neutral stance, and the Street consensus lands at exactly that: three buys, three holds, no sells. Bulls point to 12%+ revenue growth guidance through 2028, driven by AI infrastructure demand and an enterprise segment the company projects at 15-20% growth. Bears focus on the single-customer risk — one cloud IaaS provider accounts for 30-35% of revenue — and a history of inconsistent execution. The mean analyst price target of $27 now sits below the current price of $28.13, meaning the stock has effectively priced out consensus upside. A PE of 26x and P/B of 7.8x, both up sharply over 30 days as the stock rallied, add to the valuation stretch debate.
The April 30 print therefore tests whether A10's revenue diversification story is progressing fast enough to justify a stock that has outrun its own consensus — and whether the short sellers who built into the rally had the right read on the numbers.
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