StockNews.com Downgrades AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) to Buy

StockNews.com downgraded shares of AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Thursday morning.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of AudioCodes from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a buy rating and set a $14.00 price target on shares of AudioCodes in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st.

AudioCodes Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of AUDC opened at $10.79 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $10.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.51. AudioCodes has a twelve month low of $7.14 and a twelve month high of $14.45. The stock has a market cap of $327.15 million, a PE ratio of 29.97 and a beta of 0.88.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $60.08 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $62.66 million. AudioCodes had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 5.61%. Analysts expect that AudioCodes will post 0.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AudioCodes Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a Semi-Annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. AudioCodes’s payout ratio is currently 100.00%.

Institutional Trading of AudioCodes

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AudioCodes during the first quarter valued at approximately $159,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in AudioCodes in the fourth quarter worth $166,000. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in AudioCodes in the fourth quarter worth $173,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its stake in AudioCodes by 163.8% in the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 15,828 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $191,000 after acquiring an additional 9,827 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Global Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in AudioCodes in the fourth quarter worth $338,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.05% of the company’s stock.

AudioCodes Company Profile

AudioCodes Ltd. provides advanced communications software, products, and productivity solutions for the digital workplace worldwide. The company offers solutions, products, and services for unified communications, contact centers, hosted business services, Voice.AI, and service provider businesses. Its products include session border controllers, life cycle management solutions, VoIP network routing solutions, media gateways and servers, multi-service business routers, IP phones solutions, and value-added applications, as well as professional services.