Belden (NYSE:BDC) Downgraded to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Belden (NYSE:BDC) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Wednesday.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on BDC. Truist Financial upped their price target on Belden from $107.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, July 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Belden from a neutral rating to a buy rating and raised their target price for the stock from $93.00 to $117.00 in a research report on Monday, September 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Belden currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $107.80.

Belden Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of Belden stock opened at $96.87 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market cap of $4.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.46 and a beta of 1.31. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $92.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $88.36. Belden has a fifty-two week low of $58.53 and a fifty-two week high of $99.13.

Belden (NYSE:BDC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The industrial products company reported $1.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $692.25 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $687.49 million. Belden had a return on equity of 27.11% and a net margin of 10.97%. Belden’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.60 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Belden will post 7.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Belden Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 13th will be given a dividend of $0.05 per share. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 12th. Belden’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.99%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Belden news, CEO Ashish Chand sold 7,123 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.88, for a total value of $654,461.24. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 45,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,197,262.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.42% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Belden by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,317,303 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $461,382,000 after buying an additional 392,689 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Belden by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,398,989 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $243,704,000 after purchasing an additional 48,838 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in shares of Belden by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,555,571 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $148,790,000 after purchasing an additional 67,942 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Belden by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,504,292 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $143,886,000 after purchasing an additional 14,137 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners raised its holdings in Belden by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,494,778 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $128,332,000 after acquiring an additional 28,210 shares during the period. 99.16% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Belden

Belden Inc provides portfolio of signal transmission solutions 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, and home and building automation.