Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Given New $80.00 Price Target at Needham & Company LLC

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its target price upped by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $75.00 to $80.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 12.58% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Evercore ISI cut Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Barclays boosted their price target on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.23.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN stock opened at $71.06 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $66.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.40. Ciena has a 52 week low of $42.20 and a 52 week high of $73.47. The stock has a market cap of $10.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 75.60, a P/E/G ratio of 5.65 and a beta of 0.95. 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 (NYSE:CIEN) last announced 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 return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.36 earnings per share. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. This 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 the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % 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 in the last 90 days. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new position in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the second quarter worth about $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP grew its position in shares of Ciena by 118.9% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 854 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.