Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

by · The Markets Daily

Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN – Get Free Report) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $78.77.

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th.

View Our Latest Research Report on Ciena

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN opened at $79.49 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 139.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $85.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $72.19. Ciena has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. Ciena’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.16, for a total transaction of $31,556.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,435,601.52. This trade represents a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 192,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. This trade represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 56,642 shares of company stock valued at $4,818,176. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after buying an additional 108,407 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,316,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,299,004,000 after acquiring an additional 139,941 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,236,920 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $444,143,000 after acquiring an additional 17,447 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 195.9% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $392,345,000 after acquiring an additional 3,062,883 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,427,000 after acquiring an additional 53,078 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Company Profile

(Get Free Report

Ciena Corporation provides hardware and software services for delivery of video, data, and voice traffic metro, aggregation, and access communications network worldwide. The company’s Networking Platforms segment offers convergence of coherent optical transport, open optical networking, optical transport network switching, IP routing, and switching services.

Read More