Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Ciena (NYSE:CIEN)

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $95.00 price objective on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 15.54% from the company’s current price.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI cut Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.00.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $82.22 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $76.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $62.83. The company has a market cap of $11.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena has a 12 month low of $43.30 and a 12 month high of $91.82.

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

Ciena announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. The trade was a 1.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 47,131 shares of company stock worth $3,924,465 over the last three months. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake 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 valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 2.4% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in Ciena by 5.4% during the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $380,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 424.4% in the third 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 last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.