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. Currently, 3.8% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,100,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.6 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Harmonic by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,852,064 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $132,412,000 after purchasing an additional 166,018 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 8.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,741,998 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $44,043,000 after acquiring an additional 294,922 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,675,268 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $38,986,000 after acquiring an additional 17,665 shares during the period. Leeward Investments LLC MA lifted its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. Leeward Investments LLC MA now owns 1,975,966 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $23,257,000 after acquiring an additional 105,162 shares during the period. Finally, Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Harmonic by 15.3% during the 3rd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,659,823 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $24,184,000 after acquiring an additional 219,685 shares during the period. 99.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on HLIT shares. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price target on shares of Harmonic from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Northland Securities lowered their price target on shares of Harmonic from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Harmonic from $20.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Raymond James cut shares of Harmonic from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $17.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $18.00 price objective on shares of Harmonic 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 currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $15.25.

Harmonic Price Performance

NASDAQ:HLIT opened at $11.95 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.37 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company’s 50-day moving average is $13.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.76. Harmonic has a 12-month low of $9.10 and a 12-month high of $15.46.

Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) last released 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. The company had revenue of $195.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $181.77 million. Harmonic had a net margin of 13.62% and a return on equity of 7.56%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 53.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.05) EPS. Research analysts expect that Harmonic will post 0.52 EPS for the current year.

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.