Ciena’s (CIEN) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) in a report published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $90.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on CIEN. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $98.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Barclays set a $100.00 price target on Ciena and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Ciena from $68.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $76.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $83.15.

Ciena Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE:CIEN opened at $72.88 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $70.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $75.96. Ciena has a 1 year low of $44.69 and a 1 year high of $101.44. The company has a market cap of $10.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 127.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was up 23.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.27 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.67, for a total value of $27,534.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 46,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,637,150.11. The trade was a 0.75% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 2,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.93, for a total transaction of $199,825.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 202,370 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,175,434.10. This represents a 1.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 51,788 shares of company stock worth $3,431,319. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 108.6% during the 4th quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 290 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 151 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Ciena by 73.7% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in Ciena by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,459 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $887,000 after acquiring an additional 152 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its position in Ciena by 15.4% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,147 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 34.7% in the 1st quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 636 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.