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

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) in a report published on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $14.00 price objective on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on HLIT. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their price objective on shares of Harmonic from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Harmonic in a report on Friday, February 21st. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. StockNews.com raised Harmonic from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Northland Securities decreased their target price on Harmonic from $14.00 to $12.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on shares of Harmonic from $14.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $12.33.

Harmonic Price Performance

Shares of Harmonic stock opened at $9.02 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a current ratio of 2.18. Harmonic has a 52-week low of $7.91 and a 52-week high of $15.46. The company has a fifty day moving average of $9.57 and a 200-day moving average of $11.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.33 and a beta of 0.92.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $133.14 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $127.51 million. Harmonic had a return on equity of 15.90% and a net margin of 5.78%. Harmonic’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Harmonic will post 0.31 EPS for the current year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Harmonic news, Director David Krall bought 10,000 shares of Harmonic stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $9.78 per share, with a total value of $97,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 163,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,598,932.20. This represents a 6.52 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Daniel T. Whalen purchased 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $10.15 per share, with a total value of $30,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 8,840 shares in the company, valued at $89,726. This trade represents a 51.37 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders bought 32,780 shares of company stock worth $316,607. 2.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Harmonic

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Barclays PLC raised its stake in Harmonic by 414.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 201,976 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,944,000 after buying an additional 162,727 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position 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 during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in 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 grew its position in Harmonic by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 30,154 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $399,000 after purchasing an additional 1,944 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its stake in Harmonic by 84.8% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,295 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 2,888 shares in the last quarter. 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.