AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) Short Interest Update

AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 160,200 shares, a drop of 27.9% from the August 15th total of 222,200 shares. Currently, 0.8% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 77,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.1 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AUDC. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC raised its holdings in shares of AudioCodes by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 174,521 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,276,000 after acquiring an additional 2,702 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd raised its stake in shares of AudioCodes by 26.8% in the first quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 17,460 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $228,000 after purchasing an additional 3,691 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of AudioCodes by 11.3% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 53,105 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $551,000 after purchasing an additional 5,389 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its position in shares of AudioCodes by 37.5% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 25,683 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $267,000 after buying an additional 7,009 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 9,827 shares in the last quarter. 68.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on AUDC. StockNews.com raised AudioCodes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $14.00 target price on shares of AudioCodes in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st.

AudioCodes Trading Down 2.4 %

AudioCodes stock traded down $0.24 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $9.63. The stock had a trading volume of 211,279 shares, compared to its average volume of 77,096. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $10.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.01. AudioCodes has a 12 month low of $7.14 and a 12 month high of $14.45. The company has a market capitalization of $292.02 million, a P/E ratio of 27.42 and a beta of 0.87.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.11. AudioCodes had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 5.61%. The firm had revenue of $60.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $59.93 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that AudioCodes will post 0.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AudioCodes Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a Semi-Annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a yield of 3.3%. AudioCodes’s payout ratio is 100.00%.

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.