UPDATE: Nomura Equity Research Reiterates Buy Rating, Lowers PT on Ciena Corporation

In a report published Friday, Nomura Equity Research reiterated its Buy rating on Ciena Corporation

, but slightly lowered its price target from $18.00 to $17.50. Nomura Equity noted, “Ciena just missed consensus expectations for fiscal Q4, while guidance for revenues is flat to 5% below prior Street expectations and guidance for opex is up to 5% higher. The potential for a 2013 upswing in the optical transmission cycle remains a key positive for the Ciena stock. In guiding opex 5% above expectations, Ciena has lost some of the operating leverage we had forecast for 2013. After a decade of consistent cash consumption, Ciena generated $100mn in cash from operations in FY2012, and we expect this to rise to over $200mn in FY14. This dynamic highlights the turnaround in the company‟s underlying quality, in our view. Combined with strong growth, we believe that a 10.4x EPS multiple is merited (5-10% below the market PE) driving fair value to $17.5.” Ciena Corporation closed on Thursday at $15.80.