Arizona State Retirement System Grows Stock Position in Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC)

Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,843 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Belden were worth $1,334,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BDC. Prospera Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Belden during the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Belden by 97.7% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 423 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its holdings in Belden by 31.3% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 835 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $94,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. increased its holdings in Belden by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 1,202 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $135,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its holdings in Belden by 27.8% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,261 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $148,000 after acquiring an additional 274 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on BDC. Loop Capital reduced their target price on shares of Belden from $155.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Belden in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Belden from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $130.25.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Leah Tate sold 2,400 shares of the 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,243 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,667,599.11. This represents a 9.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Gregory James Mccray sold 4,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.21, for a total value of $441,882.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,199 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $441,776.79. This represents a 50.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,428 shares of company stock worth $2,589,774. 1.59% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Belden Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of BDC opened at $101.77 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Belden Inc. has a 1 year low of $80.90 and a 1 year high of $131.82. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $113.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $114.91. The firm has a market cap of $4.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.16 and a beta of 1.02.

Belden (NYSE:BDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The industrial products company reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.24. Belden had a net margin of 8.06% and a return on equity of 21.42%. On average, equities analysts expect that Belden Inc. will post 7.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Belden Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.20%. Belden’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.16%.

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.