Belden (NYSE:BDC) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Belden (NYSE:BDC) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Thursday morning.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Belden from $124.00 to $136.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Benchmark increased their price target on Belden from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Belden currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $122.75.

Belden Stock Performance

BDC stock opened at $118.65 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $118.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $110.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.07, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. Belden has a 12-month low of $71.20 and a 12-month high of $131.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.79 billion, a PE ratio of 27.59 and a beta of 1.09.

Belden (NYSE:BDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.61 by $0.09. Belden had a return on equity of 20.55% and a net margin of 7.61%. The company had revenue of $654.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $643.63 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.78 earnings per share. Belden’s revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Belden will post 6.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Belden Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 12th were given a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 12th. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.17%. Belden’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.65%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Belden

In related news, CAO Doug Zink sold 1,324 shares of Belden stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.49, for a total transaction of $155,556.76. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,643 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,132,956.07. The trade was a 12.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.59% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Belden by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,486,337 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $525,485,000 after acquiring an additional 576,768 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Belden by 6.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,574,784 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $184,532,000 after purchasing an additional 100,145 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Belden by 0.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 960,974 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $112,580,000 after purchasing an additional 5,727 shares in the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC raised its position in shares of Belden by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 708,092 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $82,939,000 after purchasing an additional 68,151 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Belden by 15.8% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 313,063 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $29,365,000 after buying an additional 42,600 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.75% of the company’s stock.

Belden Company Profile

Belden Inc designs, manufactures, and markets a portfolio of signal transmission solutions for mission critical applications in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates in two segments, Enterprise Solutions and Industrial Automation Solutions. The Enterprise Solutions segment offers copper cable and connectivity solutions, fiber cable and connectivity solutions, interconnect panels, racks and enclosures, and signal extension and matrix switching systems for use in applications, such as local area networks, data centers, access control, 5G, fiber to the home, and building automation.