Needham & Company LLC Cuts Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) Price Target to $14.00

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) had its target price lowered by Needham & Company LLC from $18.00 to $14.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on HLIT. Northland Securities decreased their price objective on Harmonic from $14.00 to $12.50 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $16.00 price objective on shares of Harmonic in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Raymond James downgraded Harmonic from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $17.00 to $14.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Harmonic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $14.00 to $12.50 in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays downgraded Harmonic from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $17.00 to $14.00 in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $12.50.

Harmonic Trading Up 2.9 %

Harmonic stock opened at $9.79 on Tuesday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $1.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.41 and a beta of 0.89. Harmonic has a one year low of $8.42 and a one year high of $15.46. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $12.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $13.09.

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

Harmonic declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, February 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase $200.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to buy up to 15.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Harmonic news, Director David Krall bought 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $9.78 per share, for a total transaction of $97,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 163,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,598,932.20. The trade was a 6.52 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Nimrod Ben-Natan bought 7,780 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $9.65 per share, with a total value of $75,077.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 347,797 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,356,241.05. The trade was a 2.29 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders purchased 29,780 shares of company stock worth $286,157 in the last quarter. Insiders own 2.36% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Harmonic

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HLIT. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Harmonic by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,063,328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $146,368,000 after buying an additional 235,188 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Harmonic by 20.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,788,714 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $103,045,000 after buying an additional 1,300,128 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Harmonic by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,675,268 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $38,986,000 after buying an additional 17,665 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Harmonic by 8.9% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,145,357 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,383,000 after buying an additional 175,133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Harmonic by 15.3% during the 3rd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,659,823 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $24,184,000 after buying an additional 219,685 shares during the last quarter. 99.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.