AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) Share Price Passes Above 200 Day Moving Average - Should You Sell?

Key Points

• AudioCodes' share price crossed above its 200-day moving average ($8.68), trading as high as $9.08 and last at $9.07, a sign of potential technical strength.
• Analysts hold a consensus Hold rating (one Buy, two Holds) with a consensus price target of $12.50.
• Q4 results met estimates with $0.16 EPS and $62.61M revenue; the company shows modest profitability (net margin 3.65%, ROE 6.46%), a market cap of about $246M, and recently paid a $0.20 dividend despite a reported payout ratio above 100%.

AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC - Get Free Report)'s share price crossed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Tuesday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $8.68 and traded as high as $9.08. AudioCodes shares last traded at $9.07, with a volume of 58,165 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on AUDC. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c)" rating on shares of AudioCodes in a report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen cut AudioCodes from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, AudioCodes has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $12.50.

AudioCodes Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $245.71 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.26 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $7.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $8.68.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.16. AudioCodes had a return on equity of 6.46% and a net margin of 3.65%.The company had revenue of $62.61 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $62.00 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AudioCodes Ltd. will post 0.7 EPS for the current year.

AudioCodes Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a yield of 552.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 20th. AudioCodes's dividend payout ratio is presently 129.03%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AudioCodes

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Heartland Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in AudioCodes by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 1,028,850 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $9,795,000 after purchasing an additional 138,300 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in AudioCodes by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 620,844 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $5,936,000 after purchasing an additional 53,266 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in AudioCodes by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 313,151 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $2,734,000 after purchasing an additional 44,073 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in AudioCodes by 101.6% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 284,951 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $2,488,000 after purchasing an additional 143,632 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in AudioCodes by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 262,824 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $2,295,000 after purchasing an additional 10,056 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.05% of the company's stock.

About AudioCodes

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.

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