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

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) in a report issued on Thursday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $65.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on the company. Northland Securities reiterated a market perform rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $52.50 to $54.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. B. Riley reduced their price objective on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $59.15.

Ciena Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $51.16 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena has a 1 year low of $39.94 and a 1 year high of $63.24. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $51.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.92. The company has a current ratio of 3.88, a quick ratio of 2.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 7.16%. The company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.15 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at $4,635,840. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,635,840. The sale 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 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total transaction of $170,835.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at $10,368,269.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in Ciena by 1,171.4% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 44,854 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,161,000 after purchasing an additional 41,326 shares during the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $661,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 949,476 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $42,736,000 after buying an additional 18,860 shares during the period. Capital Fund Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Ciena by 67.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Fund Management S.A. now owns 225,172 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,135,000 after buying an additional 90,610 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $73,476,000. 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.