Amdocs Limited (NASDAQ:DOX) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Amdocs Limited (NASDAQ:DOX) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,950,000 shares, an increase of 15.5% from the January 15th total of 3,420,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 714,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.5 days. Approximately 3.5% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Amdocs Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ DOX traded up $1.07 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $88.30. 663,595 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 632,452. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $85.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $86.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.71. Amdocs has a twelve month low of $74.41 and a twelve month high of $94.04.

Amdocs (NASDAQ:DOX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.64 by ($0.19). Amdocs had a return on equity of 18.89% and a net margin of 10.19%. As a group, research analysts predict that Amdocs will post 6.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Amdocs Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.527 dividend. This is a boost from Amdocs’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.39%. Amdocs’s payout ratio is 44.55%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Amdocs from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Amdocs from $113.00 to $111.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Amdocs from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $101.20.

Institutional Trading of Amdocs

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of DOX. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Amdocs by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 5,902 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $516,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA lifted its position in shares of Amdocs by 62.9% in the 3rd quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 303 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Amdocs by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,431 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $207,000 after acquiring an additional 124 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Amdocs by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 1,341 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $114,000 after acquiring an additional 126 shares during the period. Finally, Morton Community Bank lifted its position in shares of Amdocs by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Morton Community Bank now owns 36,410 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,185,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.02% of the company’s stock.

About Amdocs

Amdocs Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides software and services worldwide. It designs, develops, operates, implements, supports, and markets open and modular cloud portfolio. The company provides CES23, a 5G and cloud-native microservices-based market-leading customer experience suite, that enables service providers to build, deliver, and monetize advanced services; Amdocs Subscription Marketplace, a software-as-a-service-based platform that includes an expansive network of pre-integrated digital services, such as media, gaming, eLearning, sports, and retail to security and business services; the monetization suite for charging, billing, policy, and revenue management; Intelligent networking suite with a set of modular, flexible, and open service lifecycle management capabilities for network automation journeys; amAIz, a telco GenAI framework; Amdocs Digital Brands Suite, a pre-integrated digital business suite; and Amdocs eSIM Cloud for service providers.