Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Given New $95.00 Price Target at Needham & Company LLC

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price target boosted by Needham & Company LLC from $80.00 to $95.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has 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 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Northland Securities raised their price target on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.00.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $89.72 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $68.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. Ciena has a 1 year low of $42.20 and a 1 year high of $91.25. The company has a market capitalization of $12.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 157.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its 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 firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program 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 buy up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 4.8% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 403,490 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $24,851,000 after purchasing an additional 18,426 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its position in Ciena by 75.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 8,315 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $512,000 after buying an additional 3,584 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Ciena by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Ciena by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $148,348,000 after buying an additional 33,074 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 68.5% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 7,988 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $492,000 after acquiring an additional 3,246 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Company Profile

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.