By Senad Karaahmetovic
Raymond James analysts upgraded shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) to Strong Buy from Outperform with the price target raised to $70 per share from the prior $58.
The analysts believe Ciena’s entry into the edge router market will be a catalyst for shares to re-rate higher. According to Dell’Oro, the SP Edge Router market is expected to hit $8 billion this year and grow 2% CAGR until 2027.
“We believe the platform allows Ciena to address SP edge router use-cases and will feature subscriber management features for enterprise, consumer and mobile network support. The platform converges optical and routing capabilities… Ciena has no share, so routing is all upside,” the analysts said in a note.
They also believe that Verizon (NYSE:VZ) “will be among the early adopters deploying the platform in a portion of the network currently served by Ciena’s 6500.”
The new price target implies an upside potential of roughly 45% based on yesterday’s closing price.