Needham & Company LLC Raises Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target to $95.00

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price target boosted by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $80.00 to $95.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target indicates a potential upside of 5.88% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Citigroup raised their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. BNP Paribas cut Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Northland Securities upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

Ciena Stock Up 6.2 %

Ciena stock opened at $89.72 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.96 billion, a PE ratio of 157.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $68.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.86. Ciena has a 12 month low of $42.20 and a 12 month high of $91.25.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. Ciena’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051 over the last quarter. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 55.5% during the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 10,441 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $503,000 after buying an additional 3,725 shares during the period. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ciena during the 2nd quarter valued at about $355,000. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the second quarter worth about $227,000. Finally, 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the second quarter worth about $146,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

About Ciena

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.