Norges Bank Buys New Shares in AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC)

Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 12,107 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $120,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Value Base Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of AudioCodes in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $19,665,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in AudioCodes by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 52,309 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $509,000 after acquiring an additional 1,419 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of AudioCodes by 151.8% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,624 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 2,185 shares during the period. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in shares of AudioCodes during the 4th quarter worth about $97,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of AudioCodes by 95.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 104,037 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,012,000 after purchasing an additional 50,704 shares during the period. 68.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AUDC. Barclays boosted their price target on AudioCodes from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on AudioCodes from $11.00 to $12.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com raised AudioCodes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th.

AudioCodes Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of AUDC stock opened at $8.87 on Friday. AudioCodes Ltd. has a 12-month low of $7.70 and a 12-month high of $12.72. The company has a market capitalization of $263.26 million, a PE ratio of 17.74 and a beta of 1.09. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $10.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.83.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) last released its quarterly 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%. As a group, research analysts expect that AudioCodes Ltd. will post 0.7 EPS for the current year.

AudioCodes Dividend Announcement

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

AudioCodes Profile

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.