Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Cut to Buy at Wall Street Zen

by · The Cerbat Gem

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN – Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Ciena from $120.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on Ciena from $90.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Argus upped their price target on Ciena from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Ciena from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $100.00 to $140.00 in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $153.20.

View Our Latest Research Report on CIEN

Ciena Trading Up 4.7%

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $208.62 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 3.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Ciena has a 12 month low of $49.21 and a 12 month high of $214.17. The company has a market cap of $29.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 215.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.17. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $155.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $108.04.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter. Ciena had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 3.10%.The firm had revenue of $844.44 million for the quarter. Sell-side analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,863 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.14, for a total value of $262,943.82. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 43,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,143,965.34. The trade was a 4.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total transaction of $1,185,555.32. Following the transaction, the director owned 54,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,653,914.88. This trade represents a 13.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 52,174 shares of company stock worth $7,231,504. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena by 50.4% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 200 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 11.1% during the 3rd quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 698 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $102,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,475 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $943,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Ciena by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,071 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $593,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearstead Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Ciena by 42.5% in the 3rd quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 312 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Ciena

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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.

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