Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target Raised to $84.00 at Citigroup

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price target lifted by analysts at Citigroup from $68.00 to $84.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Citigroup’s target price suggests a potential upside of 14.16% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Ciena from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.62.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $73.58 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $67.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.63. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $42.20 and a fifty-two week high of $73.78. The company has a market capitalization of $10.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.56, a P/E/G ratio of 5.77 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 119.9% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after buying an additional 2,943,146 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 7,767.2% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $94,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941,419 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the third quarter worth about $57,861,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 428.2% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 886,354 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $42,705,000 after acquiring an additional 718,551 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,416,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.