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

Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $78.77.

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on CIEN shares. Morgan Stanley lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Northland Securities upped their price objective 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. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.29, for a total transaction of $579,972.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 418,949 shares in the company, valued at $35,732,160.21. The trade was a 1.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,781 shares of company stock worth $4,298,500 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,334,290,000 after acquiring an additional 108,407 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Ciena by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $273,427,000 after purchasing an additional 53,078 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted 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 worth $148,348,000 after buying an additional 33,074 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 955,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $58,850,000 after buying 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 3rd quarter valued at $57,861,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $81.38 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $81.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $66.70. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 142.78, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The firm’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan 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 plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.