Global Alpha Capital Management L recently announced the acquisition of new stake in AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 9.06% to 1.95 million shares with purchase of 0.16 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 6.21% valued currently at $34.85 million. In addition, William Blair Investment Manageme raised its holdings by 0.21 million to 1.41 million shares. And Meitav Mutual Funds Ltd. has lifted its position by 23.14% or 0.23 million shares – to 1.23 million shares.
With over 76379.0 AudioCodes Ltd. (AUDC) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $19.33 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $1.48 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -17.88% and its price on 01/24/23 lost nearly -0.26%. Currently, there are 31.72M common shares owned by the public and among those 23.67M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 5 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for AUDC have a consensus price objective of $23.40. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $32.00 and a low of $18.00. The average price target is 17.39% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -7.39% over that period. But an upside of 39.59% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $22.00.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in AudioCodes Ltd. are William Blair Small Cap Value Fun, Vanguard Total International Stoc, and Heartland Group Inc. – Value Fund. William Blair Small Cap Value Fun owns 0.52 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $9.32 million. The company bought an additional 65628.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 1.66% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total International Stoc sold 11853.0 shares to see its total holdings shrink to 0.32 million shares valued at over $5.66 million and representing 1.01% of the shares outstanding. Heartland Group Inc. – Value Fund now owns shares totaling to 0.91% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ: AUDC) opened at $19.49, up $0.11 from a prior closing price of $19.38. However, the script later moved the day high at 19.52, down -0.26%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 1.95% and 0.10% over the past three months. AUDC shares are trading 8.05% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -33.89% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $16.79 and touched a high of $31.59 over the same period. AUDC has an average intraday trading volume of 88.15K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 6.41%, 3.67%, and -9.05% respectively.
Institutional ownership of AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ: AUDC) shares accounts for 47.30% of the company’s 31.72M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 20.70%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 28.72% and — respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $605.61M and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.59. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 22.53, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $0.86. The company has a PEG of 3.29 and a Quick Ratio of 1.10 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.00. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.86% over the week and 3.01% over the month.
Analysts forecast that AudioCodes Ltd. (AUDC) will achieve an EPS of $0.34 for the current quarter, $0.37 for the next quarter and $1.68 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.34 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.35. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.38 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 20.50%, and 17.53% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 6.85% over the next five years, compared to 17.10% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 5 brokerage firm advisors rate AudioCodes Ltd. (AUDC) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.60. Specifically, 1 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 2 of the 5 advise that investors “hold,” and 1 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the AUDC, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. BofA Securities stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on May 02, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $38-$25. Sidoti coverage for the AudioCodes Ltd. (AUDC) stock in a research note released on January 31, 2022 offered a Buy rating with a price target of $37. Sidoti was of a view on October 22, 2021 that the stock is Neutral, while Barclays gave the stock Underweight rating on October 21, 2021, issuing a price target of $32. Jefferies on their part issued Hold rating on October 21, 2021.
