Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) Short Interest Up 9.3% in October

Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,010,000 shares, an increase of 9.3% from the October 15th total of 3,670,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,100,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.6 days. Approximately 3.8% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on HLIT. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective on shares of Harmonic from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Harmonic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the company from $14.00 to $12.50 in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Raymond James lowered shares of 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, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $18.00 price target on shares of Harmonic in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Northland Securities cut their price target on shares of Harmonic from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Harmonic currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $15.25.

Harmonic Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:HLIT opened at $11.95 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Harmonic has a 52-week low of $9.10 and a 52-week high of $15.46. The company has a 50 day moving average of $13.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $12.76. The company has a market capitalization of $1.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.09. Harmonic had a net margin of 13.62% and a return on equity of 7.56%. The company had revenue of $195.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $181.77 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.05) earnings per share. Harmonic’s revenue for the quarter was up 53.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Harmonic will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Harmonic

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. CWM LLC grew its position in shares of Harmonic by 780.9% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 1,999 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Harmonic by 117.6% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,448 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 1,323 shares in the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Harmonic during the second quarter worth approximately $47,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Harmonic during the first quarter worth approximately $114,000. Finally, iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Harmonic during the third quarter worth approximately $166,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.38% of the company’s stock.

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.