Ciena’s (CIEN) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. They currently have a $65.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 27.02% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on CIEN. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Ciena from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Ciena from $52.50 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.15.

Ciena Trading Down 2.4 %

NYSE CIEN opened at $51.18 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $7.35 billion, a PE ratio of 49.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena has a 1-year low of $39.94 and a 1-year high of $63.24. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $51.06 and a 200-day moving average of $49.95. The company has a current ratio of 3.88, a quick ratio of 2.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a return on equity of 7.16% and a net margin of 3.71%. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.15 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at $10,368,269.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its stake in Ciena by 339.5% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 937 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Company Profile

Ciena Corporation provides hardware and software services for delivery of video, data, and voice traffic metro, aggregation, and access communications network worldwide. The company's Networking Platforms segment offers convergence of coherent optical transport, open optical networking, optical transport network switching, IP routing, and switching services.