Principal Financial Group Inc. Buys 15,756 Shares of Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT)

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) by 2.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 583,943 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,756 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.50% of Harmonic worth $5,600,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of HLIT. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its position in shares of Harmonic by 49.5% during the 1st quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 74,832 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $718,000 after buying an additional 24,762 shares during the last quarter. Bouvel Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Harmonic by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Bouvel Investment Partners LLC now owns 120,524 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,156,000 after acquiring an additional 2,079 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Harmonic by 33.0% in the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 348,382 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,341,000 after acquiring an additional 86,390 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in shares of Harmonic by 44.3% in the 1st quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 52,100 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $500,000 after purchasing an additional 16,000 shares during the period. Finally, Silverberg Bernstein Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Harmonic by 6.5% in the 1st quarter. Silverberg Bernstein Capital Management LLC now owns 833,779 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $7,996,000 after purchasing an additional 50,652 shares in the last quarter. 99.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Harmonic from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 12th. Barclays reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Harmonic in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $14.00 target price on shares of Harmonic in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of Harmonic in a research note on Tuesday, June 17th. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Harmonic in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. They issued an “underperform” rating on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.33.

Harmonic Price Performance

Shares of HLIT opened at $9.12 on Thursday. Harmonic Inc. has a 1-year low of $7.91 and a 1-year high of $15.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.06 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $10.07. The stock has a market cap of $1.03 billion, a PE ratio of 20.27 and a beta of 1.05.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $133.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $127.51 million. Harmonic had a net margin of 7.72% and a return on equity of 18.28%. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Harmonic Inc. will post 0.31 EPS for the current year.

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.