Short Interest in Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) Declines By 8.4%

Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 989,500 shares, a decline of 8.4% from the March 15th total of 1,080,000 shares. Currently, 2.4% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 284,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.5 days.

Insider Activity

In other Belden news, EVP Brian Lieser sold 2,056 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.30, for a total value of $169,208.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 21,772 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,791,835.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 1.42% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Belden

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC grew its stake in Belden by 1,365.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,026,156 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $99,075,000 after buying an additional 956,136 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Belden in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $35,403,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Belden by 1,283.9% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 488,729 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,442,000 after purchasing an additional 453,414 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in Belden by 8.0% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,317,303 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $461,382,000 after purchasing an additional 392,689 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Belden by 32.5% during the 4th quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 914,924 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $70,678,000 after purchasing an additional 224,486 shares in the last quarter. 98.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Belden from $89.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $102.25.

Belden Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE BDC traded down $0.25 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $84.55. 182,012 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 279,266. Belden has a 1 year low of $60.54 and a 1 year high of $99.13. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $86.86 and a 200 day moving average of $78.73. The stock has a market cap of $3.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.94 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.72, a current ratio of 2.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03.

Belden (NYSE:BDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The industrial products company reported $1.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.34. Belden had a net margin of 9.66% and a return on equity of 25.11%. The business had revenue of $551.24 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $522.06 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.75 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Belden will post 5.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Belden Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $0.05 dividend. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. Belden’s dividend payout ratio is currently 3.53%.

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.