Needham & Company LLC Issues Positive Forecast for Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Price

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its target price upped by Needham & Company LLC from $80.00 to $95.00 in a report published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

CIEN has been the topic of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley lowered 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. Northland Securities boosted their target price on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Barclays upped their target price on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. 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 presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

Ciena Trading Up 6.2 %

NYSE:CIEN opened at $89.72 on Friday. Ciena has a 1 year low of $42.20 and a 1 year high of $91.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $68.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $57.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 157.40, a PEG ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan 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 plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051 in the last quarter. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Ciena by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 4.6% in the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $380,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.