Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Rating Upgraded by Northland Securities

Northland Securities upgraded shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a report published on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $75.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock, up from their previous price target of $60.00.

CIEN has been the topic of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup lifted their target price on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.38.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $63.84 on Wednesday. Ciena has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44. The company has a market cap of $9.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.00, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. 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’s fifty day moving average is $82.30 and its 200 day moving average is $73.19.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued 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). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total value of $1,137,776.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 425,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. The trade was a 3.10 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,256,582.77. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock worth $5,337,764 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 108.6% during the 4th quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 290 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 73.7% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 328.2% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 77.2% during the fourth quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Company Profile

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.