Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires Shares of 56,100 Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 56,100 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $732,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System owned 0.05% of Harmonic at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Trigran Investments Inc. grew its stake in shares of Harmonic by 38.5% during the third quarter. Trigran Investments Inc. now owns 9,636,809 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $92,802,000 after acquiring an additional 2,677,338 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Harmonic by 9.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,396,603 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $90,489,000 after acquiring an additional 847,808 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Harmonic by 1.2% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,805,740 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $75,169,000 after acquiring an additional 95,257 shares in the last quarter. Scopia Capital Management LP grew its stake in shares of Harmonic by 78.5% during the third quarter. Scopia Capital Management LP now owns 5,649,163 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $54,401,000 after acquiring an additional 2,484,825 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Toronado Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Harmonic by 149.5% during the third quarter. Toronado Partners LLC now owns 2,011,532 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $19,371,000 after acquiring an additional 1,205,380 shares in the last quarter. 99.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on HLIT. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $18.00 target price on shares of Harmonic in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. TheStreet upgraded Harmonic from a “c” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. StockNews.com upgraded Harmonic from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Raymond James decreased their price target 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. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities decreased their price target on Harmonic from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Harmonic has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.20.

Harmonic Price Performance

NASDAQ:HLIT opened at $9.20 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.96 and a beta of 0.84. Harmonic Inc. has a one year low of $8.80 and a one year high of $18.43. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $12.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.21.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $158.98 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.12 earnings per share. Harmonic’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Harmonic Inc. will post 0.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Harmonic

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