Dolby Laboratories (NYSE:DLB) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Dolby Laboratories (NYSE:DLB) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Saturday.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Dolby Laboratories in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Barrington Research dropped their target price on shares of Dolby Laboratories from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price target on shares of Dolby Laboratories in a research report on Friday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $90.75.

Dolby Laboratories Price Performance

DLB stock opened at $64.50 on Friday. Dolby Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $60.14 and a fifty-two week high of $85.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.01 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $65.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.72.

Dolby Laboratories (NYSE:DLB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The electronics maker reported $1.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $346.71 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $341.26 million. Dolby Laboratories had a net margin of 17.97% and a return on equity of 11.50%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.14 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Dolby Laboratories will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Dolby Laboratories Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 10th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Dolby Laboratories’s payout ratio is 58.06%.

Insider Activity at Dolby Laboratories

In other news, SVP Shriram Revankar sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.55, for a total transaction of $196,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 67,435 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,420,364.25. This represents a 4.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP John D. Couling sold 7,273 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.75, for a total value of $500,018.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 108,065 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,429,468.75. The trade was a 6.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 137,120 shares of company stock valued at $9,184,809 in the last quarter. 37.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Dolby Laboratories

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Dolby Laboratories during the second quarter valued at about $55,030,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Dolby Laboratories by 51.8% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,736,260 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $128,935,000 after buying an additional 592,282 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in Dolby Laboratories by 35.2% during the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,237,443 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $91,893,000 after buying an additional 322,063 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Dolby Laboratories by 98.2% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 443,897 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $32,125,000 after acquiring an additional 219,901 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Dolby Laboratories by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,756,924 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $561,369,000 after acquiring an additional 203,411 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.56% of the company’s stock.

Dolby Laboratories Company Profile

Dolby Laboratories, Inc is a global leader in audio and imaging technologies, specializing in the development, licensing and deployment of solutions that enhance entertainment and communications experiences. The company’s core business revolves around creating advanced audio codecs, noise reduction systems and spatial sound technologies for a wide range of applications, including cinema, broadcast, gaming, streaming and personal devices. Dolby’s licensing model enables consumer electronics manufacturers, content creators and service providers to integrate its technologies into products such as televisions, smartphones, home theater systems and set-top boxes.

Among its flagship innovations are Dolby Atmos, an immersive audio format that delivers three-dimensional soundscapes for theaters and home systems; Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus, widely adopted audio compression formats for broadcast and streaming; and Dolby Vision, a high-dynamic-range imaging technology that expands color, contrast and brightness in displays.