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

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $77.00.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on CIEN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $83.61 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $11.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 88.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $74.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $61.95. Ciena has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $91.82. 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 announced its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total value of $235,050.48. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,435,197.48. This represents a 5.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. The trade was a 1.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,971 shares of company stock worth $871,799. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter worth $235,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Ciena by 27.7% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,109 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $179,000 after purchasing an additional 458 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 403,490 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $24,851,000 after buying an additional 18,426 shares during the period. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 75.8% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 8,315 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $512,000 after buying an additional 3,584 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is 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.