Northland Securities Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price objective lifted by Northland Securities from $46.00 to $60.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “market perform” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Northland Securities’ target price indicates a potential downside of 33.13% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on CIEN. BNP Paribas cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays increased their target price on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on Ciena from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

Ciena Trading Up 6.2 %

CIEN stock opened at $89.72 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $12.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 157.40, a PEG ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $68.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.86. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena has a 52-week low of $42.20 and a 52-week high of $91.25.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced 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 reacquire 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.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Ciena by 3.8% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Ciena by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in Ciena by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its position in Ciena by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $380,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Ciena by 424.4% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.