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

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $18.00 price objective on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price points to a potential upside of 91.49% from the company’s previous close.

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

Harmonic Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of Harmonic stock opened at $9.40 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $12.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.77. The stock has a market cap of $1.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.24 and a beta of 0.84. Harmonic has a 1-year low of $8.80 and a 1-year high of $18.43.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.03. Harmonic had a return on equity of 4.71% and a net margin of 13.82%. The company had revenue of $167.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $158.98 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.12 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Harmonic will post 0.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Harmonic

In related news, SVP Neven Haltmayer sold 24,695 shares of Harmonic stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.58, for a total value of $285,968.10. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 181,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,105,985.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Neven Haltmayer sold 24,695 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.58, for a total transaction of $285,968.10. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 181,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,105,985.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Nimrod Ben-Natan sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.91, for a total transaction of $1,291,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 302,214 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,901,582.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 150,000 shares of company stock worth $1,917,122. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HLIT. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,824 shares during the period. Avior Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Harmonic in the fourth quarter valued at about $137,000. Kestra Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Harmonic during the third quarter worth about $131,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in Harmonic by 12.7% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Finally, Innovis Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Harmonic during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $174,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.38% of the company’s stock.

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.