Insider Buying: Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) Director Buys 3,000 Shares of Stock

Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) Director Daniel T. Whalen purchased 3,000 shares of Harmonic stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $10.15 per share, with a total value of $30,450.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,840 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $89,726. The trade was a 51.37 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Harmonic Trading Down 4.5 %

Shares of HLIT stock opened at $10.05 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.46 and a beta of 0.89. Harmonic Inc. has a 1 year low of $8.42 and a 1 year high of $15.46. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $12.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.90. The company has a current ratio of 2.18, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 10th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. Harmonic had a net margin of 5.78% and a return on equity of 15.90%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Harmonic Inc. will post 0.31 EPS for the current year.

Harmonic declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, February 10th that permits the company to repurchase $200.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to buy up to 15.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HLIT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Harmonic from $18.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. StockNews.com raised shares of Harmonic from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Harmonic from $14.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Northland Securities lowered their target price on shares of Harmonic from $14.00 to $12.50 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Harmonic in a research report on Friday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $12.50.

Institutional Trading of Harmonic

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Harmonic by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,063,328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $146,368,000 after purchasing an additional 235,188 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Harmonic by 20.0% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in Harmonic by 9,004.4% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 4,719,837 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $62,443,000 after buying an additional 4,667,996 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Harmonic by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,675,268 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $38,986,000 after buying an additional 17,665 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 175,133 shares during the period. 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.