Belden (NYSE:BDC) Raised to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Belden (NYSE:BDC) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Monday morning.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on BDC. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Belden from $124.00 to $136.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of Belden in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Belden presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $130.25.

Belden Stock Performance

Shares of BDC stock opened at $112.65 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $4.54 billion, a PE ratio of 23.42 and a beta of 1.08. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $116.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $113.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. Belden has a 52-week low of $78.64 and a 52-week high of $131.82.

Belden (NYSE:BDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The industrial products company reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.24. Belden had a return on equity of 21.42% and a net margin of 8.06%. On average, equities analysts expect that Belden will post 7.76 EPS for the current year.

Belden Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 12th were paid a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 12th. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.18%. Belden’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Belden news, SVP Leah Tate sold 2,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.77, for a total transaction of $275,448.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,243 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,667,599.11. The trade was a 9.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.59% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Belden

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BDC. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Belden by 72.2% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 279 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Prospera Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Belden in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Belden by 97.7% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 423 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in Belden by 31.3% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 835 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $94,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in Belden by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 1,202 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $135,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. 98.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.