Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) Sets New 12-Month Low After Analyst Downgrade

Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT)’s stock price reached a new 52-week low on Tuesday after Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on the stock from $14.00 to $12.00. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock. Harmonic traded as low as $7.80 and last traded at $8.44, with a volume of 599159 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.14.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Harmonic in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. They issued an “underperform” rating for the company. Wall Street Zen cut Harmonic from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 12th. Barclays set a $8.00 target price on Harmonic and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 target price on shares of Harmonic in a research report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $11.67.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Harmonic in the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 5,388.1% during the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 5,543 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $73,000 after acquiring an additional 5,442 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 132.6% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 7,119 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 4,058 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 415.7% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,612 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $898,000 after acquiring an additional 6,942 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cresset Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Harmonic during the fourth quarter valued at about $133,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.38% of the company’s stock.

Harmonic Trading Up 3.1%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The stock has a market cap of $1.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.24 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $9.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.79.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 28th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.03 by $0.06. Harmonic had a net margin of 9.96% and a return on equity of 17.83%. The firm had revenue of $138.03 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $134.90 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.08 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Harmonic Inc. will post 0.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.