AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) Short Interest Down 7.4% in April

AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 96,200 shares, a drop of 7.4% from the March 31st total of 103,900 shares. Approximately 0.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 74,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.3 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AUDC has been the topic of a number of research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of AudioCodes from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, January 20th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of AudioCodes from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of AudioCodes from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th.

AudioCodes Trading Down 0.1 %

AUDC stock traded down $0.01 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $11.10. The company's stock had a trading volume of 143,899 shares, compared to its average volume of 75,668. The stock has a market cap of $336.55 million, a PE ratio of 39.36, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 0.80. AudioCodes has a fifty-two week low of $7.14 and a fifty-two week high of $14.45. The company's 50 day moving average is $12.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.60.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $63.56 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.18 million. AudioCodes had a net margin of 3.59% and a return on equity of 7.35%. On average, analysts forecast that AudioCodes will post 0.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AudioCodes Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 20th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 16th. This represents a dividend yield of 2.6%. AudioCodes's dividend payout ratio is currently 128.57%.

Institutional Trading of AudioCodes

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Heartland Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AudioCodes by 236.0% during the 3rd quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 780,500 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $7,891,000 after buying an additional 548,200 shares during the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP acquired a new stake in AudioCodes in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $617,000. Senvest Management LLC increased its holdings in AudioCodes by 159.5% in the 3rd quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 2,546,011 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $25,740,000 after purchasing an additional 1,565,039 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in AudioCodes by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,106,660 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $11,167,000 after purchasing an additional 98,938 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in AudioCodes in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $188,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.05% of the company's stock.

About AudioCodes

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.