Harmonic Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:HLIT)

Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock investors bought 9,404 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 2,549% compared to the average volume of 355 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HLIT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays lowered their target price on Harmonic from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 1st. Northland Securities lowered their target price on Harmonic from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 1st. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their target price on Harmonic from $22.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 1st. StockNews.com raised Harmonic from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, TheStreet cut Harmonic from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Monday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $18.50.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Harmonic by 582.4% during the 2nd quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,781 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 1,520 shares during the period. West Tower Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Harmonic during the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in shares of Harmonic by 411.4% during the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 3,866 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 3,110 shares during the period. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of Harmonic by 80.5% during the 4th quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 3,271 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 1,459 shares during the period. Finally, Belpointe Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Harmonic by 2,615.0% during the 1st quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 3,258 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 3,138 shares during the period. 99.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Harmonic Price Performance

Shares of HLIT opened at $9.85 on Tuesday. Harmonic has a twelve month low of $9.49 and a twelve month high of $18.43. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $11.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.10 billion, a PE ratio of 54.73 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 31st. The communications equipment provider reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.08 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $155.96 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $167.27 million. Harmonic had a return on equity of 11.78% and a net margin of 3.40%. Research analysts anticipate that Harmonic will post 0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

About Harmonic

Harmonic Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provide video delivery software, products, system solutions, and services worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Video and Broadband. The Video segment sells video processing, production, and playout solutions and services to broadband operators, and satellite and telecommunications Pay-TV service providers, as well as to broadcast and media, including streaming media companies.