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

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and nine have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $59.15.

Several research firms recently issued reports on CIEN. Barclays upped their target price on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, B. Riley dropped their price objective on Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 7th.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $51.18 on Monday. Ciena has a 52-week low of $39.94 and a 52-week high of $63.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.35 billion, a PE ratio of 49.21, a PEG ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.76 and a current ratio of 3.88. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.95.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a return on equity of 7.16% and a net margin of 3.71%. The business had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,368,269.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total transaction of $170,835.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,368,269.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in Ciena by 1,171.4% during the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 44,854 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,161,000 after buying an additional 41,326 shares in the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at $661,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 949,476 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $42,736,000 after purchasing an additional 18,860 shares in the last quarter. Capital Fund Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 67.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital Fund Management S.A. now owns 225,172 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,135,000 after purchasing an additional 90,610 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at $73,476,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.