Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) Short Interest Down 8.4% in March

Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 989,500 shares, a decrease of 8.4% from the March 15th total of 1,080,000 shares. Currently, 2.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 284,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.5 days.

Belden Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of BDC traded down $0.47 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $84.79. The stock had a trading volume of 171,711 shares, compared to its average volume of 280,617. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 2.30 and a quick ratio of 1.72. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $86.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $78.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.98 and a beta of 1.04. Belden has a 1-year low of $60.54 and a 1-year high of $99.13.

Belden (NYSE:BDC) last issued its 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. The company had revenue of $551.24 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $522.06 million. Belden had a return on equity of 25.11% and a net margin of 9.66%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.75 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Belden will post 5.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Belden Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Brian Lieser sold 2,056 shares of the 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 $1,791,835.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Belden

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BDC. FMR LLC lifted its position in Belden by 1,365.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,026,156 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $99,075,000 after acquiring an additional 956,136 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Belden in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,403,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position 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 valued at $3,442,000 after acquiring an additional 453,414 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 392,689 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Belden by 32.5% during the 4th quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 914,924 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $70,678,000 after buying an additional 224,486 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

About Belden

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.