Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the seven research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $11.6250.

Several research firms have recently commented on HLIT. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Harmonic in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen cut Harmonic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Barclays reduced their price objective on Harmonic from $10.00 to $8.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Harmonic from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Harmonic in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. They set an “underperform” rating for the company.

Harmonic Stock Performance

Shares of Harmonic stock opened at $10.38 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 1.99. Harmonic has a 1 year low of $7.80 and a 1 year high of $13.75. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $10.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.46. The firm has a market cap of $1.18 billion, a PE ratio of 17.59 and a beta of 1.01.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 17.83% and a net margin of 9.96%.The firm had revenue of $138.03 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $134.90 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.08 earnings per share. Harmonic’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Harmonic will post 0.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Harmonic

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HLIT. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 24,762 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Harmonic by 2.8% in the 1st 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. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 4.2% in the first quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 33,392 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $320,000 after acquiring an additional 1,344 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Harmonic by 132.6% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 7,119 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 4,058 shares during the period. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. raised its holdings in Harmonic by 14.1% during the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 63,524 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $609,000 after purchasing an additional 7,846 shares in the last quarter. 99.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.