Amdocs (NASDAQ:DOX) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Amdocs (NASDAQ:DOX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

DOX has been the subject of several other reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Amdocs from $71.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 4th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Amdocs from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Amdocs from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $78.33.

Amdocs Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ DOX opened at $41.74 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. Amdocs has a 52 week low of $40.48 and a 52 week high of $85.63. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $59.07 and its 200 day moving average is $61.77. The company has a market cap of $4.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.94, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.42.

Amdocs (NASDAQ:DOX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 3rd. The technology company reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.98. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.19 billion. Amdocs had a net margin of 10.59% and a return on equity of 20.70%. The firm’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.83 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Amdocs will post 7.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Amdocs Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.5690 per share. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.5%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 31st. Amdocs’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.82%.

Institutional Trading of Amdocs

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in Amdocs by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 8,075 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $462,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares in the last quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp lifted its position in shares of Amdocs by 8.7% in the 3rd quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp now owns 12,090 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $691,000 after purchasing an additional 965 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Amdocs by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,112,976 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $63,703,000 after purchasing an additional 111,800 shares in the last quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System boosted its stake in shares of Amdocs by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 6,459 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $369,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jacobi Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amdocs during the 3rd quarter valued at about $104,000. Institutional investors own 92.02% of the company’s stock.

About Amdocs