Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Receives $67.15 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $77.00.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CIEN. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th.

Ciena Trading Up 6.2 %

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $89.72 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $68.91 and its 200 day moving average price is $57.92. The company has a market cap of $12.96 billion, a PE ratio of 157.40, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $42.20 and a fifty-two week high of $91.25.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value 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 $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,989 shares of company stock valued at $460,211 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC bought a new position in Ciena during the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Ciena by 152.8% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in Ciena by 241.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007 shares during the last quarter. 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.