Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Trims Holdings in Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT)

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC decreased its holdings in Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 272,702 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,704 shares during the quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings in Harmonic were worth $3,608,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. KBC Group NV increased its stake in Harmonic by 84.8% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,295 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 2,888 shares during the period. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Harmonic by 274.2% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 8,439 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 6,184 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Harmonic during the fourth quarter valued at $146,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Harmonic during the third quarter valued at $166,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in shares of Harmonic by 14.9% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 12,671 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $185,000 after buying an additional 1,647 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.38% of the company’s stock.

Harmonic Price Performance

HLIT opened at $10.45 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $12.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $13.00. Harmonic Inc. has a 1 year low of $8.42 and a 1 year high of $15.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.22 billion, a PE ratio of 14.32 and a beta of 0.89.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 10th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. Harmonic had a return on equity of 7.56% and a net margin of 13.62%. Research analysts anticipate that Harmonic Inc. will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Harmonic announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, February 10th that allows the company to repurchase $200.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 15.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Harmonic news, Director David Krall purchased 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $9.78 per share, with a total value of $97,800.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 163,490 shares in the company, valued at $1,598,932.20. The trade was a 6.52 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Nimrod Ben-Natan purchased 7,780 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $9.65 per share, with a total value of $75,077.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 347,797 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,356,241.05. This represents a 2.29 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders acquired 29,780 shares of company stock valued at $286,157. 2.36% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on HLIT. StockNews.com upgraded Harmonic from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Raymond James lowered Harmonic from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $17.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Northland Securities cut their price target on Harmonic from $14.00 to $12.50 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on Harmonic from $16.00 to $12.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on Harmonic from $14.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $12.50.

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.