Niran Baruch Sells 1,875 Shares of AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) Stock

AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) CFO Niran Baruch sold 1,875 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.71, for a total value of $16,331.25. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 80,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $702,243.75. This represents a 2.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

AudioCodes Trading Up 5.2%

NASDAQ:AUDC opened at $9.26 on Friday. AudioCodes Ltd. has a 12-month low of $6.95 and a 12-month high of $11.50. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $8.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $8.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $250.84 million, a P/E ratio of 29.87 and a beta of 0.97.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.16. AudioCodes had a return on equity of 6.46% and a net margin of 3.65%.The firm had revenue of $62.61 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $62.00 million.

AudioCodes Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Investors of record on Friday, February 20th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 20th. This represents a yield of 552.0%. AudioCodes’s dividend payout ratio is presently 129.03%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Wall Street Zen lowered AudioCodes from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $12.50.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AudioCodes

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in AudioCodes during the second quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of AudioCodes by 3,621.4% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,294 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 7,098 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of AudioCodes in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $127,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of AudioCodes in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $150,000. Finally, SIH Partners LLLP bought a new stake in shares of AudioCodes in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $170,000. 68.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About AudioCodes

AudioCodes Ltd is a global provider of advanced voice networking and media processing solutions for enterprises and service providers. The company designs and manufactures a comprehensive portfolio of products, including session border controllers (SBCs), media gateways, IP phones, management and monitoring software, and cloud-based communications microservices. Its offerings support a wide range of unified communications (UC) and contact center deployments, enabling secure, high-quality voice connectivity across on-premises, hybrid and cloud environments.

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Rosh Ha’Ayin, Israel, AudioCodes serves customers in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.