AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) to Issue $0.18 Semi-annual Dividend

AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC) announced a semi-annual dividend on Thursday, February 6th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.18 per share by the communications equipment provider on Thursday, March 6th. This represents a yield of 3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th.

AudioCodes has increased its dividend by an average of 2.9% annually over the last three years. AudioCodes has a payout ratio of 32.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect AudioCodes to earn $0.70 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 51.4%.

AudioCodes Stock Performance

Shares of AudioCodes stock opened at $12.37 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.81. AudioCodes has a one year low of $7.70 and a one year high of $14.45. The company has a market cap of $373.82 million, a PE ratio of 30.93 and a beta of 0.80.

AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.09. AudioCodes had a net margin of 4.99% and a return on equity of 8.85%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that AudioCodes will post 0.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on AUDC shares. Barclays lifted their price target on AudioCodes from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised AudioCodes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of AudioCodes from $11.00 to $12.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday.

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.