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

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reissued by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $95.00 price target on the communications equipment provider's stock. Needham & Company LLC's price objective suggests a potential upside of 15.31% from the company's current price.

CIEN has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley cut Ciena from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $63.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays lifted their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered Ciena from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $77.00.

Ciena Stock Performance

Ciena stock traded up $0.16 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $82.39. 1,843,333 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,908,455. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $76.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $62.83. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $43.30 and a fifty-two week high of $91.82. The stock has a market cap of $11.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.65, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at $5,042,121.12. This represents a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 47,131 shares of company stock valued at $3,924,465. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 152.8% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 241.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $88,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.