AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) Stock Passes Above 200 Day Moving Average - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• AudioCodes stock passed above its 200-day moving average, trading as high as $8.95 and last at $8.86 on volume of 71,921 shares (200-day MA = $8.65).
• The stock has a consensus analyst rating of "Hold" with a $12.50 target, reflecting one Buy and two Hold ratings and recent downgrades/changes from firms like Weiss Ratings and Wall Street Zen.
• Fundamentals: AudioCodes reported $0.16 EPS in the most recent quarter (meeting estimates) on $62.61M revenue, and paid a $0.20 dividend (payout ratio 129.03% per the report).

Shares of AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC - Get Free Report) passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $8.65 and traded as high as $8.95. AudioCodes shares last traded at $8.86, with a volume of 71,921 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AUDC has been the subject of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings restated 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 research report on Saturday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $12.50.

AudioCodes Trading Up 1.5%

The firm's 50 day moving average price is $8.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $8.65. The company has a market capitalization of $240.02 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.58 and a beta of 0.97.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.16. The business had revenue of $62.61 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.00 million. AudioCodes had a net margin of 3.65% and a return on equity of 6.46%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that AudioCodes Ltd. will post 0.7 EPS for the current year.

AudioCodes Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a dividend yield of 552.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 20th. AudioCodes's payout ratio is currently 129.03%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AudioCodes

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AUDC. Heartland Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in AudioCodes by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 1,028,850 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $9,795,000 after purchasing an additional 138,300 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in shares of AudioCodes by 4.3% in the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 27,217 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $259,000 after purchasing an additional 1,132 shares during the last quarter. Susquehanna Advisors Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of AudioCodes in the third quarter valued at about $217,000. Verition Fund Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AudioCodes in the third quarter valued at about $206,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of AudioCodes during the 4th quarter worth about $202,000. Institutional investors 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.

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