Heartland Advisors Inc. Lowers Stake in AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC)

Heartland Advisors Inc. decreased its position in shares of AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) by 5.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 858,600 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 51,900 shares during the period. Heartland Advisors Inc. owned 2.84% of AudioCodes worth $8,363,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AUDC. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in AudioCodes by 151.8% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,624 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 2,185 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in shares of AudioCodes during the 4th quarter valued at about $97,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of AudioCodes during the 4th quarter worth about $120,000. DGS Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AudioCodes by 72.8% in the third quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 21,672 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $211,000 after acquiring an additional 9,133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in AudioCodes by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 52,309 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $509,000 after purchasing an additional 1,419 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on AUDC shares. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on AudioCodes from $11.00 to $12.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays upped their price target on AudioCodes from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded AudioCodes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th.

AudioCodes Trading Down 2.6 %

NASDAQ:AUDC opened at $9.55 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $10.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.88. AudioCodes Ltd. has a twelve month low of $7.70 and a twelve month high of $13.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $288.57 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.10 and a beta of 0.86.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.09. AudioCodes had a return on equity of 10.47% and a net margin of 6.32%. On average, analysts predict that AudioCodes Ltd. will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current year.

AudioCodes Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were issued a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 20th. This represents a yield of 3%. AudioCodes’s dividend payout ratio is currently 72.00%.

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.