Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday after Jefferies Financial Group downgraded the stock from a buy rating to a hold rating. The stock had previously closed at $14.82, but opened at $10.93. Jefferies Financial Group now has a $12.50 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $14.00. Harmonic shares last traded at $11.27, with a volume of 2,165,194 shares changing hands.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on HLIT. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price objective on Harmonic from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Harmonic from $20.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Northland Securities reduced their target price on shares of Harmonic from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $18.00 target price on shares of Harmonic in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Raymond James cut 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 report on Tuesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Harmonic presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $15.25.

Institutional Trading of Harmonic

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HLIT. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of Harmonic in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $923,000. Jane Street Group LLC grew its stake in Harmonic by 1,276.3% in the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 1,203,297 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $16,172,000 after buying an additional 1,115,870 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Harmonic by 216.5% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 545,495 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,420,000 after buying an additional 373,155 shares during the last quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC bought a new position in Harmonic during the first quarter worth $3,659,000. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 24.0% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 290,842 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,909,000 after buying an additional 56,269 shares in the last quarter. 99.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Harmonic Trading Up 4.3 %

The firm has a market cap of $1.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.30 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a 50 day moving average of $14.00 and a 200 day moving average of $12.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.09. Harmonic had a net margin of 10.22% and a return on equity of 0.27%. The firm had revenue of $195.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $181.77 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.05) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 53.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Harmonic Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current 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.