AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) Short Interest Update

AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) saw a large decrease in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 68,318 shares, a decrease of 33.0% from the March 31st total of 101,977 shares. Approximately 0.5% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 63,810 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.1 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Wall Street Zen downgraded AudioCodes from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AudioCodes currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $12.50.

AudioCodes Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of AUDC opened at $8.80 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $8.39 and its 200-day moving average is $8.61. AudioCodes has a 12 month low of $6.95 and a 12 month high of $11.50. The firm has a market cap of $238.39 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.39 and a beta of 0.97.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.16. AudioCodes had a net margin of 3.65% and a return on equity of 6.46%. The company had revenue of $62.61 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.00 million.

AudioCodes Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 20th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 20th. This represents a dividend yield of 552.0%. AudioCodes’s dividend payout ratio is 129.03%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AUDC. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC increased its stake in shares of AudioCodes by 56.0% during the 1st quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 19,646 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $185,000 after purchasing an additional 7,052 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. acquired a new position in AudioCodes during the first quarter valued at approximately $412,000. Jane Street Group LLC grew its holdings in AudioCodes by 14.2% during the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 47,624 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $449,000 after purchasing an additional 5,938 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in AudioCodes by 38.3% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 39,306 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $386,000 after purchasing an additional 10,877 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in AudioCodes by 12.3% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 179,371 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,761,000 after purchasing an additional 19,629 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.05% of the company’s stock.

AudioCodes Company Profile

AudioCodes Ltd is a global provider of advanced voice networking and media processing solutions for enterprises and service providers. The company designs and manufactures a comprehensive portfolio of products, including session border controllers (SBCs), media gateways, IP phones, management and monitoring software, and cloud-based communications microservices. Its offerings support a wide range of unified communications (UC) and contact center deployments, enabling secure, high-quality voice connectivity across on-premises, hybrid and cloud environments.

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Rosh Ha’Ayin, Israel, AudioCodes serves customers in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.