Short Interest in Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) Expands By 9.3%

Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) saw a large growth in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,010,000 shares, a growth of 9.3% from the October 15th total of 3,670,000 shares. Approximately 3.8% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,100,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.6 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Harmonic

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HLIT. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Harmonic by 117.6% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,448 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 1,323 shares during the last quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in Harmonic by 7.2% in the second quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 20,192 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $238,000 after acquiring an additional 1,362 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers increased its position in Harmonic by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 320,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,772,000 after purchasing an additional 1,382 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Harmonic by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 22,256 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $299,000 after purchasing an additional 1,532 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in Harmonic by 14.9% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 12,671 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,647 shares during the last quarter. 99.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on HLIT shares. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Harmonic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $14.00 to $12.50 in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays reduced their target price on Harmonic from $20.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Raymond James cut Harmonic from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $17.00 to $14.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on Harmonic from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Northland Securities lowered their target price on Harmonic from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Harmonic has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $15.25.

Harmonic Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ HLIT traded down $0.48 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $11.92. 1,360,774 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,522,632. The company has a market cap of $1.39 billion, a PE ratio of 16.33 and a beta of 0.89. Harmonic has a twelve month low of $9.10 and a twelve month high of $15.46. 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 50 day simple moving average of $13.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.74.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last announced 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 return on equity of 7.56% and a net margin of 13.62%. The firm had revenue of $195.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $181.77 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.05) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 53.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Harmonic will post 0.52 EPS for the current fiscal 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.