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

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price objective raised by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $75.00 to $80.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 10.76% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup upgraded Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.38.

Ciena Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $72.23 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $67.07 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.52. The company has a market cap of $10.43 billion, a PE ratio of 76.84, a P/E/G ratio of 5.77 and a beta of 0.95. Ciena has a 1-year low of $42.20 and a 1-year high of $73.49. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.36 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, 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 owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 have sold 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter worth $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the second quarter valued at $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Ciena by 152.8% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP increased 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 valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 854 shares in the last quarter. 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.