Barclays Issues Pessimistic Forecast for AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) Stock Price

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) had its price target cut by stock analysts at Barclays from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “underweight” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective suggests a potential upside of 14.36% from the stock’s current price.

AUDC has been the subject of several other reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $14.00 price objective on shares of AudioCodes in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com raised AudioCodes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th.

AudioCodes Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ AUDC opened at $7.87 on Thursday. AudioCodes has a 12 month low of $7.70 and a 12 month high of $14.45. The company has a market cap of $237.83 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.49 and a beta of 0.86. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $10.14.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $60.24 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $61.58 million. AudioCodes had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 5.61%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AudioCodes will post 0.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AudioCodes

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AUDC. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of AudioCodes by 15.3% during the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 94,563 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,233,000 after purchasing an additional 12,541 shares in the last quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of AudioCodes by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 838,400 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $10,933,000 after purchasing an additional 13,000 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of AudioCodes by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 852,899 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $11,122,000 after purchasing an additional 23,104 shares in the last quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AudioCodes during the 1st quarter valued at about $159,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd increased its holdings in shares of AudioCodes by 26.8% during the 1st quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 17,460 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $228,000 after acquiring an additional 3,691 shares during the last quarter. 68.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.