Jefferies Financial Group Downgrades Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) to Hold

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) was downgraded by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, FinViz reports.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on HLIT. Raymond James downgraded shares of Harmonic from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $17.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $18.00 price objective on shares of Harmonic in a report on Tuesday. Northland Securities lowered their price target on shares of Harmonic from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Harmonic from $20.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on Harmonic from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Two 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, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $15.80.

Harmonic Stock Down 24.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:HLIT traded down $3.58 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $11.24. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,433,710 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,500,458. The company has a market capitalization of $1.26 billion, a PE ratio of 18.73 and a beta of 0.87. Harmonic has a fifty-two week low of $9.10 and a fifty-two week high of $15.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a current ratio of 1.87. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $14.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $12.57.

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

Insider Activity at Harmonic

In other Harmonic news, SVP Neven Haltmayer sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.41, for a total value of $576,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 122,211 shares in the company, valued at $1,761,060.51. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Harmonic

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HLIT. Clearline Capital LP grew its stake in Harmonic by 777.6% during the 2nd quarter. Clearline Capital LP now owns 1,570,461 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $18,484,000 after acquiring an additional 1,391,504 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC grew its position in Harmonic by 1,276.3% during the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 1,203,297 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $16,172,000 after purchasing an additional 1,115,870 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in Harmonic by 1,952.4% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 978,127 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $11,513,000 after buying an additional 930,469 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in Harmonic in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $7,687,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Harmonic by 117.7% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,187,528 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $17,302,000 after buying an additional 642,033 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.38% of the company’s stock.

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.