Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Saturday.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on Harmonic from $14.00 to $12.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 price objective on shares of Harmonic in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Harmonic in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. They issued an “underperform” rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Harmonic from $10.00 to $8.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $11.67.

Harmonic Trading Up 3.4%

HLIT opened at $8.63 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $976.03 million, a P/E ratio of 14.63 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $9.20 and its 200-day moving average is $9.67. Harmonic has a 52-week low of $7.80 and a 52-week high of $15.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 28th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.03 by $0.06. Harmonic had a net margin of 9.96% and a return on equity of 17.83%. The firm had revenue of $138.03 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $134.90 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.08 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Harmonic will post 0.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Harmonic

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Harmonic by 5,388.1% during the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 5,543 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $73,000 after acquiring an additional 5,442 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Harmonic by 2.8% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 583,943 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $5,600,000 after acquiring an additional 15,756 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Harmonic by 415.7% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,612 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $898,000 after acquiring an additional 6,942 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Harmonic by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,252,837 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $16,575,000 after acquiring an additional 147,274 shares during the period. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in Harmonic by 4.2% during the first quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 33,392 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $320,000 after acquiring an additional 1,344 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.