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

Key Points

• Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) has been downgraded from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating by Wall Street Zen, amidst mixed analyst opinions with a consensus target price of $11.67.
• The company's shares are currently trading at $8.35, showing a 1-year low of $7.80 and a high of $15.46, and institutional investors hold a significant stake of 99.38% in the company.
• Harmonic reported earnings of $0.09 per share for the last quarter, surpassing analyst expectations, despite a slight year-over-year revenue decline of .5%.

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

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Harmonic from $10.00 to $8.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Harmonic from $14.00 to $12.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Harmonic in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. They set an "underperform" rating for the company. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of Harmonic in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. One equities research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $11.67.

Harmonic Stock Performance

NASDAQ:HLIT traded down $0.04 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $8.70. The stock had a trading volume of 435,099 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,175,964. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 1.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $989.14 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.74 and a beta of 1.00. Harmonic has a twelve month low of $7.80 and a twelve month high of $15.46. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.66.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT - Get Free Report) 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 analysts' consensus estimates of $0.03 by $0.06. Harmonic had a net margin of 9.96% and a return on equity of 17.83%. The company had revenue of $138.03 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $134.90 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.08 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Harmonic will post 0.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Harmonic

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HLIT. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 9,004.4% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 4,719,837 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $62,443,000 after acquiring an additional 4,667,996 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. raised its stake in shares of Harmonic by 310.1% in the 1st quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 3,077,776 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $29,516,000 after purchasing an additional 2,327,272 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Harmonic by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,788,714 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $103,045,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300,128 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Harmonic in the 1st quarter valued at about $8,621,000. Finally, Tudor Investment Corp ET AL raised its stake in shares of Harmonic by 198.2% in the 4th quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL now owns 797,176 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $10,547,000 after purchasing an additional 529,833 shares in the last quarter. 99.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.