AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) Stock Holdings Trimmed by Heartland Advisors Inc.

Heartland Advisors Inc. decreased its position in AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 858,600 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 51,900 shares during the period. Heartland Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AudioCodes were worth $8,363,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in AudioCodes by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 52,309 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $509,000 after purchasing an additional 1,419 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of AudioCodes by 151.8% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,624 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 2,185 shares during the last quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 9,133 shares during the period. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in AudioCodes in the fourth quarter worth about $97,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in AudioCodes in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $120,000. 68.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AudioCodes Price Performance

Shares of AudioCodes stock opened at $9.55 on Friday. AudioCodes Ltd. has a 1-year low of $7.70 and a 1-year high of $13.11. The company has a market capitalization of $288.57 million, a P/E ratio of 19.10 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $10.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.88.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 Ltd. will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AudioCodes Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 20th. This represents a yield of 3%. AudioCodes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 72.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AUDC. StockNews.com upgraded AudioCodes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on AudioCodes from $11.00 to $12.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of AudioCodes from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th.

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.