Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, video services specialist Harmonic
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Harmonic's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Harmonic facts
| Headquarters (Founded) | Sunnyvale, Calif. (1988) |
| Market Cap | $1.07 billion |
| Industry | Communications equipment |
| Trailing-12-Month Revenue | $423.34 million |
| Management | CEO Patrick Harshman (since 2006) CFO Carolyn Aver (since 2010) |
| Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years) | 3.4% |
| Cash/Debt | $120.37 million / $0 |
| Competitors |
Arris Group Cisco Systems Motorola Solutions |
Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 94% of the 299 members who have rated Harmonic believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include sandmanjg and EthanTremblay.
In February, sandmanjg touched on the trends working in Harmonic's favor: "HD Video on demand growth explosion, optical sector demand is strong for years to come."
Over the next five years, in fact, Harmonic is expected to grow its bottom line at a solid rate of 15% annually. That's in line with similar-sized foe Arris Group (14.5%), and faster than much larger rivals Cisco (10.5%) and Motorola Solutions (5.5%).
CAPS member EthanTremblay elaborates on the bull case:
Harmonic appears to provide a technically broad and elegant video infrastructure and applications platform for video content creation, storage and deilvery over multiple transmission protocols and disparate video devices. I believe their Enterprise App approach for Media outlets of all types and sizes make them more than just a niche provider of limited types of video content management. ... Media is expanding to many forms of visual displays, user devices and electronic appliances outside traditional forms that businesses, employeess and consumers have become accustomed to.
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