Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT)

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reiterated by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $18.00 price objective on the communications equipment provider's stock. Needham & Company LLC's price target suggests a potential upside of 67.60% from the company's previous close.

HLIT has been the subject of a number of other reports. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their price target on Harmonic from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. TheStreet upgraded Harmonic from a "c" rating to a "b" rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. StockNews.com upgraded Harmonic from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Raymond James cut their price objective on Harmonic from $19.00 to $18.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $17.20.

Harmonic Stock Performance

Shares of Harmonic stock traded up $1.34 on Tuesday, reaching $10.74. 7,374,776 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,089,702. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. Harmonic has a twelve month low of $8.80 and a twelve month high of $18.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.13 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $12.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.78.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.05) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.01) by ($0.04). Harmonic had a return on equity of 4.71% and a net margin of 13.82%. The firm had revenue of $122.06 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $121.70 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.06 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Harmonic will post 0.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Neven Haltmayer sold 24,695 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.58, for a total transaction of $285,968.10. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 181,864 shares in the company, valued at $2,105,985.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Harmonic news, SVP Neven Haltmayer sold 24,695 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.58, for a total transaction of $285,968.10. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 181,864 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,105,985.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Nimrod Ben-Natan sold 100,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.91, for a total value of $1,291,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 302,214 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,901,582.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 150,000 shares of company stock worth $1,917,122. 2.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Harmonic

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of HLIT. Trigran Investments Inc. lifted its stake in Harmonic by 38.5% during the 3rd quarter. Trigran Investments Inc. now owns 9,636,809 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $92,802,000 after acquiring an additional 2,677,338 shares in the last quarter. Scopia Capital Management LP lifted its stake in Harmonic by 78.5% during the 3rd quarter. Scopia Capital Management LP now owns 5,649,163 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $54,401,000 after acquiring an additional 2,484,825 shares in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new position in Harmonic during the 4th quarter worth about $19,257,000. Wolf Hill Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Harmonic during the 4th quarter worth about $16,879,000. Finally, Toronado Partners LLC increased its holdings in Harmonic by 149.5% during the 3rd quarter. Toronado Partners LLC now owns 2,011,532 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $19,371,000 after purchasing an additional 1,205,380 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.