Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC Makes New $173,000 Investment in AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC)

Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 14,342 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $173,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AudioCodes in the first quarter worth about $42,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AudioCodes in the first quarter worth about $45,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its stake in shares of AudioCodes by 669.4% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 5,232 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 4,552 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in shares of AudioCodes in the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. Finally, State of Wyoming raised its stake in shares of AudioCodes by 146.3% in the second quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 7,783 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 4,623 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AUDC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Barclays raised their price objective on AudioCodes from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on AudioCodes from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded AudioCodes from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 20th.

AudioCodes Trading Down 2.8 %

Shares of AUDC stock opened at $10.42 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $12.84 and a 200 day moving average of $11.54. The stock has a market cap of $315.93 million, a P/E ratio of 37.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.80. AudioCodes Ltd. has a twelve month low of $7.14 and a twelve month high of $14.45.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $63.56 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.18 million. AudioCodes had a return on equity of 7.35% and a net margin of 3.59%. On average, research analysts predict that AudioCodes Ltd. will post 0.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AudioCodes Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 20th were given a $0.18 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 16th. AudioCodes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 128.57%.

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.