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

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $600.00 price objective on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 54.45% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on CIEN. Argus set a $650.00 price target on Ciena in a report on Friday, June 5th. Northland Securities raised shares of Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $450.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Ciena from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $615.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $527.78.

Ciena Trading Up 4.4%

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $388.47 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $418.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $433.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.11. Ciena has a 1-year low of $90.00 and a 1-year high of $637.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $54.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 129.49 and a beta of 1.30.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 18.15% and a net margin of 7.87%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.42 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Ciena will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,629 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.20, for a total value of $1,225,639.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 62,382 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,082,488.40. This represents a 4.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.33, for a total transaction of $739,599.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 42,872 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,992,499.76. The trade was a 3.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 25,422 shares of company stock worth $11,638,117 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 53.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 445,359 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $104,156,000 after purchasing an additional 155,712 shares during the last quarter. TKG Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,244,000. Swiss National Bank raised its position in Ciena by 7.0% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 413,332 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $160,468,000 after buying an additional 26,900 shares during the last quarter. DNB Asset Management AS lifted its stake in Ciena by 1,095.8% during the 4th quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 27,527 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,438,000 after acquiring an additional 25,225 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 37,022.0% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 135,124 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,249,000 after acquiring an additional 134,760 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Company Profile

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena’s product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.