Amdocs (NASDAQ:DOX) Stock Rating Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Amdocs (NASDAQ:DOX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Weiss Ratings raised Amdocs from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Oppenheimer cut Amdocs from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Amdocs from $71.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $78.33.

Amdocs Stock Down 4.0%

Amdocs stock opened at $42.09 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.54 billion, a PE ratio of 9.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.42. The company’s 50-day moving average is $59.49 and its 200-day moving average is $61.98. Amdocs has a fifty-two week low of $40.48 and a fifty-two week high of $85.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

Amdocs (NASDAQ:DOX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 3rd. The technology company reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.98. Amdocs had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 10.59%. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.19 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.83 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Amdocs will post 7.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Amdocs Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.5690 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 31st. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.4%. Amdocs’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.82%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amdocs

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Money Concepts Capital Corp raised its position in Amdocs by 8.7% in the third quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp now owns 12,090 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $691,000 after purchasing an additional 965 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Amdocs by 11.2% during the third quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,112,976 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $63,703,000 after purchasing an additional 111,800 shares during the last quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System grew its holdings in shares of Amdocs by 23.1% during the third quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 6,459 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $369,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212 shares during the last quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amdocs during the third quarter worth about $104,000. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of Amdocs by 22.5% in the third quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 73,014 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,175,000 after buying an additional 13,417 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.02% of the company’s stock.

About Amdocs

Amdocs Ltd. (NASDAQ: DOX) is a global provider of software and technology services for communications, media and entertainment companies. Its solutions help service providers manage customer relationships, billing, subscriptions, product offerings and digital experiences across consumer and enterprise markets.

The company’s portfolio includes business support systems and operational support systems, cloud-based software, artificial intelligence and automation tools, network and service management platforms, and solutions for media distribution and monetization.