Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Trims Stock Position in Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT)

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 272,702 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,704 shares during the quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC owned approximately 0.23% of Harmonic worth $3,608,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in shares of Harmonic by 14.9% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 12,671 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,647 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC increased its holdings in Harmonic by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 30,154 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $399,000 after acquiring an additional 1,944 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Harmonic by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 39,041 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $538,000 after acquiring an additional 2,207 shares in the last quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. increased its holdings in Harmonic by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 322,353 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $4,265,000 after acquiring an additional 2,742 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its holdings in Harmonic by 84.8% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,295 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $83,000 after acquiring an additional 2,888 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HLIT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Raymond James lowered shares of Harmonic from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $17.00 to $14.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Harmonic from $14.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Northland Securities reduced their target price on shares of Harmonic from $14.00 to $12.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Harmonic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $14.00 to $12.50 in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective on shares of Harmonic from $16.00 to $12.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $12.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director David Krall bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost 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 $1,598,932.20. The trade was a 6.52 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Walter Jankovic purchased 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was bought at an average price of $9.44 per share, with a total value of $113,280.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 46,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $435,457.76. The trade was a 35.16 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders bought 29,780 shares of company stock worth $286,157. 2.36% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Harmonic Trading Up 3.9 %

Shares of HLIT opened at $10.45 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.32 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $12.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.00.

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

Harmonic announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share 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 repurchase up to 15.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Harmonic 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.