Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) Shares Gap Up to $9.40

Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $9.40, but opened at $11.85. Harmonic shares last traded at $11.16, with a volume of 2,597,627 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HLIT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Raymond James lowered their price objective on Harmonic from $19.00 to $18.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. TheStreet raised Harmonic from a “c” rating to a “b” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $18.00 price objective on shares of Harmonic in a research report on Tuesday. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price objective on Harmonic from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Harmonic from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Harmonic has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.20.

Harmonic Price Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $12.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.21.

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

Insider Transactions at Harmonic

In other news, SVP Nimrod Ben-Natan sold 100,000 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 302,214 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,901,582.74. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, SVP Nimrod Ben-Natan sold 100,000 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 302,214 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,901,582.74. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Neven Haltmayer sold 24,695 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.58, for a total value of $285,968.10. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 181,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,105,985.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 150,000 shares of company stock worth $1,917,122 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Harmonic

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Harmonic by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 585,533 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $7,870,000 after buying an additional 2,142 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Harmonic by 1,289.8% in the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 172,340 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,316,000 after buying an additional 159,940 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its stake in Harmonic by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,355,274 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $18,215,000 after buying an additional 57,002 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Harmonic by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,686,046 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $126,306,000 after buying an additional 289,443 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Harmonic by 12.7% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,796,165 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $114,702,000 after buying an additional 990,425 shares in the last quarter. 99.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.