Harmonic’s (HLIT) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) in a research report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $18.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

HLIT has been the subject of a number of other reports. StockNews.com raised Harmonic from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. TheStreet raised Harmonic from a c rating to a b rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Raymond James dropped their price objective on shares of Harmonic from $19.00 to $18.00 and set a strong-buy rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective on shares of Harmonic from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Buy and an average target price of $17.20.

Harmonic Stock Performance

Shares of HLIT opened at $10.96 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.77. Harmonic has a 12-month low of $8.80 and a 12-month high of $18.43. The firm has a market cap of $1.23 billion, a PE ratio of 18.27 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by ($0.04). Harmonic had a return on equity of 1.35% and a net margin of 12.37%. The business had revenue of $122.06 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $121.70 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.06 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Harmonic will post 0.37 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Harmonic

In other news, SVP Neven Haltmayer sold 14,747 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.68, for a total value of $201,738.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 156,559 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,141,727.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Neven Haltmayer sold 14,747 shares of Harmonic stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.68, for a total transaction of $201,738.96. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 156,559 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,141,727.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Nimrod Ben-Natan sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.91, for a total value of $1,291,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 302,214 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,901,582.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Harmonic

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of HLIT. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its position in Harmonic by 237.8% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,591 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 1,824 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in Harmonic by 12.7% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 16,622 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $160,000 after purchasing an additional 1,871 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Harmonic by 0.4% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 585,533 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $7,870,000 after acquiring an additional 2,142 shares in the last quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 1.4% during the third quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 160,504 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,546,000 after purchasing an additional 2,151 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its position in shares of Harmonic by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 232,615 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,240,000 after acquiring an additional 2,900 shares in the last quarter. 99.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Harmonic

Harmonic Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides broadband solutions worldwide. The company operates through Broadband and Video segments. The Broadband segment sells broadband access solutions and related services, including cOS software-based broadband access solutions to broadband operators; and cOS central cloud services, a subscription service for cOS customers.