Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Buy” Rating for Ciena (NYSE:CIEN)

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) in a research report report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $95.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Barclays raised 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. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Northland Securities increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN opened at $82.39 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $76.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $62.83. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $43.30 and a fifty-two week high of $91.82. The firm has a market cap of $11.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized a share buyback 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 1.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total value of $235,050.48. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,607 shares in the company, valued at $4,435,197.48. The trade was a 5.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 47,131 shares of company stock valued at $3,924,465. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 119.9% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,943,146 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 7,767.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $94,742,000 after buying an additional 1,941,419 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $57,861,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Ciena by 428.2% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 886,354 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $42,705,000 after buying an additional 718,551 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new position in Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,416,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.