Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Grows Stake in Radware Ltd. $RDWR

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its holdings in Radware Ltd. (NASDAQ:RDWR) by 16.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,130,252 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 431,572 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership owned 7.33% of Radware worth $82,920,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Semanteon Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Radware during the third quarter valued at approximately $562,000. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd grew its stake in Radware by 1.9% during the third quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd now owns 46,146 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,222,000 after acquiring an additional 844 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its holdings in Radware by 27.2% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 274,362 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,268,000 after acquiring an additional 58,730 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Radware by 49.0% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 24,569 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $651,000 after purchasing an additional 8,080 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Radware by 200.9% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,341 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 1,563 shares during the last quarter. 73.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Radware Price Performance

Shares of RDWR stock opened at $23.15 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $988.27 million, a PE ratio of 51.45 and a beta of 0.95. Radware Ltd. has a 1 year low of $18.46 and a 1 year high of $31.57. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.79.

Radware (NASDAQ:RDWR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The information technology services provider reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.02. Radware had a return on equity of 7.21% and a net margin of 6.71%.The firm had revenue of $80.25 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.65 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.27 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Radware Ltd. will post 0.28 EPS for the current year.

Radware declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Friday, February 13th that permits the company to buyback $80.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 7.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Radware from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 31st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Radware in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $25.00 target price on Radware in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Radware presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.00.

About Radware

Radware Ltd. provides cybersecurity and application delivery solutions designed to ensure the availability, performance and security of mission‐critical applications. Its product portfolio includes on‐premises and cloud‐based offerings such as Alteon application delivery controllers, DefensePro network behavior analysis for DDoS mitigation and AppWall web application firewall. The company’s platforms use real‐time behavioral analysis, machine learning and automation to protect against distributed denial‐of‐service attacks, application layer threats and network intrusions.

Founded in 1997, Radware is co-headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, with a principal U.S.