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

Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT)’s stock 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 trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $18.00 target price on shares of Harmonic in a research report on Tuesday. TheStreet upgraded shares of Harmonic from a “c” rating to a “b” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of Harmonic from $19.00 to $18.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Harmonic from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Harmonic from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Harmonic currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $17.20.

Harmonic Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $1.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.48 and a beta of 0.90. The company’s 50-day moving average is $12.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last posted 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 company had revenue of $122.06 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $121.70 million. Harmonic had a net margin of 12.37% and a return on equity of 1.35%. Harmonic’s quarterly revenue was down 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.06 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Harmonic Inc. will post 0.32 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Harmonic

In related news, SVP Nimrod Ben-Natan sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.91, for a total value of $1,291,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 302,214 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,901,582.74. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Harmonic news, SVP Neven Haltmayer sold 14,747 shares of Harmonic stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.68, for a total transaction of $201,738.96. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 156,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,141,727.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Nimrod Ben-Natan sold 100,000 shares of Harmonic stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.91, for a total transaction of $1,291,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 302,214 shares in the company, valued at $3,901,582.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 125,305 shares of company stock valued at $1,631,154 over the last three months. 2.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HLIT. Silverberg Bernstein Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Harmonic in the fourth quarter valued at $10,481,000. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Harmonic by 551.3% in the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 122,937 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,184,000 after purchasing an additional 104,061 shares during the period. DigitalBridge Group Inc. grew its holdings in Harmonic by 126.4% in the third quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 932,096 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $8,976,000 after purchasing an additional 520,369 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Harmonic by 247.7% in the third quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 168,194 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,620,000 after purchasing an additional 119,815 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Harmonic by 9.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,396,603 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $90,489,000 after purchasing an additional 847,808 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.