Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) shares gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $88.68, but opened at $93.00. Ciena shares last traded at $94.57, with a volume of 599,465 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays upped their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Northland Securities raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Ciena Stock Up 3.8 %

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $80.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 172.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. This trade represents a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 50,781 shares of company stock worth $4,298,500. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 0.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,334,290,000 after buying an additional 108,407 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings 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 worth $273,427,000 after acquiring an additional 53,078 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $148,348,000 after acquiring an additional 33,074 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 955,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $58,850,000 after purchasing an additional 6,605 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at $57,861,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

About Ciena

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.