Shares of the telecom and network-equipment provider Ciena Corp. made gains Friday after a Credit Suisse analyst upgraded the company, citing its low stock price.
Shares rose 24 cents, or 4 percent, to $6.17 in morning trading — still off 11 percent year-to-date and 76 percent over the past 52 weeks.
The Linthicum, Md., company posted a loss for its fiscal first quarter Thursday, missing Wall Street forecasts.
Credit Suisse analyst Paul Silverstein upgraded the company to "Neutral" from "Underperform." He told investors in a note that he expects Ciena to continue missing Wall Street earnings and revenue projections.
But he said the share price looks attractive given Ciena is positioned to benefit from eventual infrastructure upgrades among communications-service providers.
Piper Jaffray analyst Troy Jensen took a similar view, reiterating a "Neutral" rating on shares and telling investors in a note that "the company did a nice job of lowering operating expenses and preserving cash during the quarter."
And given that Internet bandwidth use continues to grow, Jensen added, "it is only a matter of time before carriers return to historical spending levels" to keep networks up to date.
Ciena ended the quarter with a cash balance of about $271 million, or $2.99 per share. The company said it would cut 200 jobs, or 9 percent of its work force, and shutter a Massachusetts facility over the next four months.