Short Interest in Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) Decreases By 17.9%

Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 895,300 shares, a decline of 17.9% from the February 13th total of 1,090,000 shares. Currently, 2.3% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 273,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Belden

In other news, CEO Ashish Chand sold 14,535 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.45, for a total value of $1,619,925.75. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 107,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,939,527.05. This represents a 11.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Leah Tate sold 2,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.77, for a total transaction of $275,448.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,243 shares in the company, valued at $2,667,599.11. This trade represents a 9.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,428 shares of company stock valued at $2,589,774 in the last three months. 1.59% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Belden

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BDC. FMR LLC boosted its position in Belden by 14.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,486,337 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $525,485,000 after buying an additional 576,768 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Belden in the 4th quarter valued at $54,167,000. Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Belden in the 4th quarter valued at $2,511,000. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in shares of Belden by 234.7% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 224,363 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $25,266,000 after buying an additional 157,335 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of Belden by 380.3% in the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 166,354 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $18,726,000 after buying an additional 131,719 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BDC. StockNews.com raised shares of Belden from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Loop Capital decreased their price target on shares of Belden from $155.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price target on shares of Belden in a report on Monday, February 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $130.25.

Belden Price Performance

NYSE:BDC traded down $2.66 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $103.87. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 24,205 shares, compared to its average volume of 254,465. Belden has a fifty-two week low of $80.90 and a fifty-two week high of $131.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The company has a market capitalization of $4.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.59 and a beta of 1.02. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $111.98 and a 200-day moving average of $114.77.

Belden (NYSE:BDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The industrial products company reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.24. Belden had a net margin of 8.06% and a return on equity of 21.42%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Belden will post 7.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Belden Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.19%. Belden’s dividend payout ratio is 4.16%.

Belden Company Profile

Belden Inc designs, manufactures, and markets a portfolio of signal transmission solutions for mission critical applications in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates in two segments, Enterprise Solutions and Industrial Automation Solutions. The Enterprise Solutions segment offers copper cable and connectivity solutions, fiber cable and connectivity solutions, interconnect panels, racks and enclosures, and signal extension and matrix switching systems for use in applications, such as local area networks, data centers, access control, 5G, fiber to the home, and building automation.