StockNews.com Upgrades AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) to "Strong-Buy"

StockNews.com upgraded shares of AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC - Free Report) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Wednesday.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on AUDC. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of AudioCodes in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of AudioCodes from $10.00 to $9.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th.

AudioCodes Stock Performance

Shares of AUDC traded down $0.15 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $12.22. 114,606 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 121,751. AudioCodes has a 12-month low of $7.70 and a 12-month high of $14.04. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $10.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.83. The company has a market cap of $369.29 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.44 and a beta of 0.80.

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

AudioCodes Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AUDC. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of AudioCodes in the third quarter valued at $1,618,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of AudioCodes by 95.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 104,037 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $1,012,000 after purchasing an additional 50,704 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in AudioCodes during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $595,000. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in AudioCodes by 37.5% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 25,683 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $267,000 after buying an additional 7,009 shares during the period. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in AudioCodes by 11.1% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 91,287 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $893,000 after buying an additional 9,150 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.