With the clarification in "Re 3", this should give you an approach:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
# 812662

my @data = ('<td class="c"><input type="hidden" name="recid5" value="1
+0293424">2009/08</td>',
            '<td class="c">foobar - Item &quot;123&quot;: <b>8</b></td
+>'
           );

for my $data(@data) {
    if ($data =~ /"hidden"/ && $data =~ /value="([^"]+)/ ) {
        print "Hidden value: $1 \n";
    }else{
        print "Nothing hidden in \$data: $data\n";
    }
}
[download]

Output:

Hidden value: 10293424
Nothing hidden in $data: <td class="c">foobar - Item &quot;123&quot;: 
+<b>8</b></td>
[download]

Update: else {...} added for clarity and output updated