Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Needham & Company LLC

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $18.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective points to a potential upside of 54.77% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on the stock. Raymond James cut their price objective on shares of Harmonic from $19.00 to $18.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. TheStreet raised Harmonic from a “c” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their target price on Harmonic from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Harmonic from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $17.20.

Harmonic Stock Down 0.3 %

HLIT stock opened at $11.63 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.38 and a beta of 0.90. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Harmonic has a 52 week low of $8.80 and a 52 week high of $18.43.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.05) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $122.06 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $121.70 million. Harmonic had a return on equity of 1.35% and a net margin of 12.37%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.06 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Harmonic will post 0.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Harmonic news, SVP Ian Graham sold 52,730 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.95, for a total transaction of $577,393.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 63,616 shares in the company, valued at $696,595.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Harmonic

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HLIT. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Harmonic by 237.8% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,591 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 1,824 shares during the period. SageView Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Harmonic during the first quarter worth approximately $114,000. Kestra Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Harmonic during the third quarter worth approximately $131,000. Avior Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Harmonic during the fourth quarter worth approximately $137,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,871 shares during the period. 99.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Harmonic Company Profile

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.