Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $78.77.

CIEN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $81.38 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $11.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 142.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena has a twelve month low of $43.30 and a twelve month high of $101.44. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $81.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $66.70. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

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

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share 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 reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the sale, the director now owns 59,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,042,121.12. This trade represents a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 50,781 shares of company stock valued at $4,298,500 in the last 90 days. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $57,861,000. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $56,997,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,416,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new position in Ciena during the third quarter worth approximately $35,403,000. Finally, LMR Partners LLP purchased a new position in Ciena during the third quarter worth approximately $17,236,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.