Systematic Financial Management LP Acquires 8,943 Shares of Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT)

Systematic Financial Management LP boosted its holdings in Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,116,611 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,943 shares during the quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP’s holdings in Harmonic were worth $14,773,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in HLIT. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Harmonic by 414.6% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 201,976 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,944,000 after acquiring an additional 162,727 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 39,041 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $538,000 after purchasing an additional 2,207 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 18.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 246,944 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,598,000 after purchasing an additional 38,137 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 30,154 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $399,000 after purchasing an additional 1,944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 84.8% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,295 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 2,888 shares in the last quarter. 99.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $14.00 price objective on shares of Harmonic in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Harmonic in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective on Harmonic from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. StockNews.com upgraded Harmonic from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Harmonic in a report on Friday, February 21st. They set a “hold” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $12.33.

Insider Transactions at Harmonic

In other Harmonic news, Director Daniel T. Whalen acquired 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $10.15 per share, for a total transaction of $30,450.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 8,840 shares in the company, valued at $89,726. This represents a 51.37% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.21% of the company’s stock.

Harmonic Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of HLIT stock opened at $9.54 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.08 billion, a PE ratio of 28.91 and a beta of 1.03. Harmonic Inc. has a 1-year low of $7.91 and a 1-year high of $15.46. The business has a 50-day moving average of $9.34 and a 200 day moving average of $11.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 2.18 and a quick ratio of 1.80.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $133.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $127.51 million. Harmonic had a return on equity of 15.90% and a net margin of 5.78%. The business’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Harmonic Inc. will post 0.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Harmonic announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, February 10th that allows the company to repurchase $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 15.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.