Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Given “Buy” Rating at Needham & Company LLC

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $95.00 price objective on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 15.31% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on CIEN. Evercore ISI lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Citigroup boosted 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. Morgan Stanley lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Barclays boosted 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. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

Ciena Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $82.39 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $76.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $63.19. The company has a market capitalization of $11.71 billion, a P/E 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 has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $91.82.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly 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). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 prior year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in 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 usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total transaction of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,485,797.71. This represents a 1.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 47,131 shares of company stock worth $3,924,465. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the third quarter worth about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 365 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake 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 worth $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the third 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 boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 118.9% during the second 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 period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.