AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) Short Interest Update

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in AudioCodes by 62.5% during the third quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 20,423 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $206,000 after purchasing an additional 7,856 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its stake in AudioCodes by 163.8% during the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 15,828 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $191,000 after purchasing an additional 9,827 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. bought a new position in AudioCodes during the third quarter worth about $116,000. Trexquant Investment LP lifted its stake in AudioCodes by 21.0% during the fourth quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 73,827 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $891,000 after purchasing an additional 12,835 shares during the period. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in AudioCodes during the third quarter worth about $134,000. Institutional investors own 68.05% of the company’s stock.

AudioCodes Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AUDC traded down $0.11 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $10.71. 16,793 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 76,041. AudioCodes has a 52-week low of $7.14 and a 52-week high of $14.45. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $12.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $11.63. The company has a market capitalization of $324.73 million, a PE ratio of 38.64, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 0.80.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $63.56 million for 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%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AudioCodes will post 0.68 EPS for the current year.

AudioCodes Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 20th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 16th. AudioCodes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 128.57%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on AUDC shares. Barclays boosted their price target on AudioCodes from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com upgraded AudioCodes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on AudioCodes from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th.

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.