Needham & Company LLC Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) had its price target lifted by Needham & Company LLC from $80.00 to $95.00 in a research note released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the communications equipment provider's stock.

CIEN has been the topic of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ciena from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Ciena from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Evercore ISI lowered 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 note on Tuesday, October 15th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. 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, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN traded up $5.20 on Friday, reaching $89.72. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,656,255 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,848,643. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $68.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.52. 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 company has a market cap of $12.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 94.89, a PEG ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. Ciena has a 52-week low of $42.20 and a 52-week high of $91.25.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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). Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during 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 period. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Ciena by 152.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP raised its position in Ciena by 118.9% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 854 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is 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.