Short Interest in AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) Decreases By 15.7%

AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC - Get Free Report) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 132,500 shares, a decrease of 15.7% from the January 15th total of 157,200 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 106,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.2 days. Approximately 0.6% of the company's shares are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AUDC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of AudioCodes from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com raised AudioCodes from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on AudioCodes from $11.00 to $12.50 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in AudioCodes by 151.8% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,624 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 2,185 shares during the period. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of AudioCodes during the fourth quarter valued at $97,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in AudioCodes in the 4th quarter worth approximately $120,000. DGS Capital Management LLC lifted its position in AudioCodes by 72.8% during the third quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 21,672 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $211,000 after buying an additional 9,133 shares during the period. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of AudioCodes in the 4th quarter valued at $406,000. 68.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AudioCodes Price Performance

Shares of AUDC traded down $0.16 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $11.43. The stock had a trading volume of 170,524 shares, compared to its average volume of 119,748. The company has a market cap of $345.41 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.86 and a beta of 0.80. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $10.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $9.88. AudioCodes has a 1-year low of $7.70 and a 1-year high of $14.04.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.09. AudioCodes had a return on equity of 10.47% and a net margin of 6.32%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AudioCodes will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current year.

AudioCodes Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. AudioCodes's payout ratio is 72.00%.

About AudioCodes

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.