JPMorgan Chase & Co. Reduces Position in AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced its stake in AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) by 56.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 45,299 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 58,738 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned about 0.15% of AudioCodes worth $441,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Value Base Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of AudioCodes during the 4th quarter worth $19,665,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in AudioCodes by 151.8% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,624 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 2,185 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in AudioCodes by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 52,309 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $509,000 after buying an additional 1,419 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in AudioCodes in the 4th quarter valued at about $97,000. Finally, DGS Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in AudioCodes by 72.8% in the 3rd quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 21,672 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $211,000 after buying an additional 9,133 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on AUDC. StockNews.com raised shares of AudioCodes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 26th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of AudioCodes from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on AudioCodes from $11.00 to $12.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th.

AudioCodes Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ AUDC opened at $9.40 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 cap of $278.99 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.80 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.80.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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, equities analysts forecast that AudioCodes Ltd. will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AudioCodes Dividend Announcement

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

AudioCodes Company 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.