Global Broadband Upgrades Will Spur Lasting Market Expansion

Key Takeaways

• Upgrading global broadband and expanded international reach are diversifying revenue sources and strengthening Harmonic's future growth prospects.
  
• Shifting to higher-margin SaaS and cloud solutions, fueled by strong demand and strategic partnerships, is expected to boost gross margins and recurring earnings.
  
• Dependence on a few major clients, rapid tech changes, increased competition, and shifting revenue models pose risks to Harmonic's stability, growth, and profitability.

Catalysts

Provides broadband access solutions worldwide.

• Accelerating global demand for high-speed broadband and the ongoing transformation to next-generation virtualized broadband networks (including Fiber-to-the-Home and Unified DOCSIS 4.0) are driving a multi-year upgrade cycle among operators-Harmonic's leadership and recent customer wins in these areas signal a strong pipeline and are likely to fuel significant future revenue growth as operators ramp deployments in 2026 and beyond.
  
• Expansion into international markets ("rest of world" growth), supported by government incentives like OBBBA in the U.S. and large-scale broadband rollouts worldwide, is helping to diversify Harmonic's customer base and reduce revenue concentration risk, increasing both revenue stability and long-term sales potential.
  
• Increasing adoption of video streaming and the corresponding shift by media companies to premium, broadcast-grade OTT delivery is elevating demand for Harmonic's SaaS streaming and hybrid cloud solutions-this shift to higher-margin software and recurring revenue streams is likely to improve company gross margins and earnings over time.
  
• Strong order book and deferred revenue ($504.5 million), record rest of world broadband sales, and robust Video SaaS momentum (with new partnerships like Akamai and expansion with customers like ViewLift) all indicate building demand that is expected to convert into revenue and earnings growth over the coming quarters.
  
• Continued operational focus on innovation (e.g., DOCSIS 4.0, fiber, AI-driven latency reduction), supply chain optimization, and cost management-along with incremental benefits from favorable trade/tax measures-is likely to drive further operating leverage and improvements in net margins as revenue growth accelerates.

Harmonic Future Earnings and Revenue Growth

Assumptions

• Analysts are assuming Harmonic's revenue will decrease by 0.3% annually over the next 3 years.
• Analysts assume that profit margins will increase from 10.0% today to 10.1% in 3 years time.
• Analysts expect earnings to reach $70.6 million (and earnings per share of $0.48) by about September 2028, up from $68.6 million today.
• In order for the above numbers to justify the analysts price target, the company would need to trade at a PE ratio of 19.1x on those 2028 earnings, up from 16.4x today. This future PE is lower than the current PE for the US Communications industry at 27.2x.
• Analysts expect the number of shares outstanding to decline by 2.38% per year for the next 3 years.
• To value all of this in today's terms, we will use a discount rate of 8.45%, as per the Simply Wall St company report.

Harmonic Future Earnings Per Share Growth

Risks

• Harmonic's heavy reliance on a few large customers, notably Comcast (39% of revenue this quarter), exposes the company to significant revenue volatility and pricing pressures if these customers reduce orders, delay network upgrades, or switch to competitors, which poses a risk to revenue stability.
  
• The company's long-term growth prospects are threatened by rapid technology shifts in video delivery and broadband. If Harmonic cannot continuously and effectively invest in R&D to keep pace with evolving standards such as new codecs, cloud-native architectures, or unified access technologies, their solutions could become obsolete, impacting future revenue and net margins.
  
• Margins face ongoing risks from intensified price competition and the potential commoditization of software-based video and broadband solutions, as well as from the broader industry trend toward open-source and hyperscale cloud alternatives that could reduce Harmonic's differentiation, pressuring both revenues and profitability.
  
• The transition from hardware-centric to SaaS/subscription-based recurring revenue models may lead to near
• or mid-term delays in revenue recognition and cash flow, with possible adverse effects on earnings and liquidity-especially if customers are slow to migrate or if adoption levels lag management expectations.
  
• Macroeconomic uncertainties, including global CapEx spending delays by major telecom and media operators (such as Charter's pushout of $500 million in network investments), fluid and unpredictable tariff/trade environments, and the potential for protectionist policies, can weaken demand for Harmonic's products and services, leading to softness in revenue growth or margin compression.

Valuation

• The analysts have a consensus price target of $10.071 for Harmonic based on their expectations of its future earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors. However, there is a degree of disagreement amongst analysts, with the most bullish reporting a price target of $12.5, and the most bearish reporting a price target of just $7.0.
• In order for you to agree with the analyst's consensus, you'd need to believe that by 2028, revenues will be $695.5 million, earnings will come to $70.6 million, and it would be trading on a PE ratio of 19.1x, assuming you use a discount rate of 8.4%.
• Given the current share price of $9.91, the analyst price target of $10.07 is 1.6% higher. The relatively low difference between the current share price and the analyst consensus price target indicates that they believe on average, the company is fairly priced.
• We always encourage you to reach your own conclusions though. So sense check these analyst numbers against your own assumptions and expectations based on your understanding of the business and what you believe is probable.