Needham & Company LLC Issues Positive Forecast for AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) Stock Price

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) had its price target raised by Needham & Company LLC from $11.00 to $12.50 in a research note published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on AUDC. StockNews.com upgraded AudioCodes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays lifted their price target on AudioCodes from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday.

AudioCodes Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AUDC opened at $12.22 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $369.29 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.55 and a beta of 0.80. The business has a 50-day moving average of $9.97 and a 200-day moving average of $9.82. AudioCodes has a fifty-two week low of $7.70 and a fifty-two week high of $14.04.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.09. AudioCodes had a return on equity of 8.85% and a net margin of 4.99%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that AudioCodes will post 0.51 EPS for the current year.

AudioCodes Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a yield of 3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. AudioCodes’s payout ratio is currently 90.00%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AudioCodes

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AUDC. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in AudioCodes by 37.5% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 25,683 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $267,000 after purchasing an additional 7,009 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in AudioCodes during the third quarter worth approximately $1,618,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its position in AudioCodes by 11.1% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 91,287 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $893,000 after acquiring an additional 9,150 shares during the last quarter. Senvest Management LLC lifted its position in AudioCodes by 1.5% during the third quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 2,580,448 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $25,108,000 after acquiring an additional 37,080 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in AudioCodes during the third quarter worth approximately $595,000. Institutional investors 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.