Insider Buying: Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) Director Acquires 2,000 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Harmonic Inc. director Daniel T. Whalen purchased 2,000 shares at $8.25 each, increasing his stake by 16.89% to a total of 13,840 shares valued at approximately $114,180.
• In its latest earnings report, Harmonic exceeded EPS forecasts with $0.09, outperforming analysts' expectations of $0.03, and reported quarterly revenue of $138.03 million.
• Investment analysts have mixed views on Harmonic, with price targets ranging from $8.00 to $12.00, and an average rating of "Hold" on the stock.

Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT - Get Free Report) Director Daniel T. Whalen purchased 2,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were purchased at an average price of $8.25 per share, for a total transaction of $16,500.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 13,840 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $114,180. This trade represents a 16.89% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Harmonic Stock Performance

NASDAQ:HLIT traded up $0.28 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $8.63. The stock had a trading volume of 851,884 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,181,713. The stock has a market capitalization of $976.05 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.63 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.69. Harmonic Inc. has a 52 week low of $7.80 and a 52 week high of $15.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 28th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $134.90 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.08 EPS. Harmonic's revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Harmonic Inc. will post 0.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Harmonic

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in shares of Harmonic in the 4th quarter worth approximately $307,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Harmonic by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,063,328 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $146,368,000 after purchasing an additional 235,188 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Harmonic by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 124,527 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $1,647,000 after purchasing an additional 4,400 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Harmonic by 175.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 681,425 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $9,015,000 after acquiring an additional 434,481 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in shares of Harmonic by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,145,357 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $28,383,000 after acquiring an additional 175,133 shares in the last quarter. 99.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on HLIT shares. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on shares of Harmonic from $14.00 to $12.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and set a $11.00 price objective on shares of Harmonic in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Harmonic in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. They set an "underperform" rating for the company. Barclays cut 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Harmonic from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $11.67.

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.

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