Why Lumentum Holdings Stock Bounced 5% Higher Today

Not for the first time this young month, Lumentum Holdings (NASDAQ: LITE) was a highflier on the stock exchange Monday. Shares of the optical electronics specialist closed the day more than 5% higher in price, thanks to two bullish new analyst notes -- one of which involved a recommendation upgrade. The stock's rise provided a welcome contrast to the S&P 500 index, which fell by 0.2%.

A pair of positive pundits

Of the two new pundit publications, it was naturally the one with the upgrade that had the greater impact. Before market open that day, Northland analyst Tim Savageaux changed his recommendation on Lumentum to outperform (i.e., buy) from his previous market perform (hold). His price target on the company is $70 per share, which is 34% higher than the stock's current level.

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Another boost from the world of punditry came from researchers at Stifel. On Monday, that company published its take on last week's Optica Executive Forum at the Optical Fiber Communications industry conference.

Stifel was generally quite bullish on what it heard and saw at the event. According to reports it wrote that with the increasing workloads requiring effective, low-latency data transmission will support companies in the optical field.

It put the kibosh on the idea that optical transceivers are obsolete; in the Stifel team's view, they are the only workable option for coping with sharply increasing bandwidth requirements.

A fine position to be in

Lumentum, then, is a company that is in the right time and place to take advantage of those dynamics. Judging by how its stock has done in recent trading sessions, it seems that many investors agree with Stifel's conclusions. This is doubtlessly a company worth watching.

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Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Lumentum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.