Ciena's (CIEN) "Buy" Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Key Points

• Needham reaffirmed a “Buy” rating on Ciena and set a $600 price target, implying 54.45% upside from the previous close.
• Analyst sentiment remains favorable, with 14 Buy ratings and six Holds producing a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and average target of $527.78.
• Ciena recently beat quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting $1.64 EPS and $1.57 billion in revenue, up 39.5% year over year; however, insiders sold more than $11.6 million in stock during the last quarter.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating restated by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $600.00 target price on the communications equipment provider's stock. Needham & Company LLC's price target would suggest a potential upside of 54.45% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on CIEN. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Ciena from $345.00 to $658.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Zacks Research cut shares of Ciena from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Bank of America reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. Northland Securities upgraded shares of Ciena from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $450.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $372.00 to $607.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $527.78.

Ciena Trading Up 4.4%

NYSE:CIEN opened at $388.47 on Wednesday. Ciena has a one year low of $90.00 and a one year high of $637.51. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $418.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $433.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 129.49 and a beta of 1.30. 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 (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $1.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 18.15% and a net margin of 7.87%.Ciena's quarterly revenue was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.02, for a total transaction of $1,349,123.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 266,605 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $121,843,817.10. This trade represents a 1.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,586 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.33, for a total transaction of $739,599.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 42,872 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,992,499.76. This represents 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 25,422 shares of company stock valued at $11,638,117 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Advus Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in Ciena during the second quarter valued at approximately $282,000. Groupe la Francaise bought a new stake in Ciena in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $11,911,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $11,646,000. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 49,854.1% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 104,748,296 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $51,385,324,000 after acquiring an additional 104,538,607 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameritas Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the second quarter valued at $339,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently 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.

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