Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Barclays Analyst Says

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price objective raised by analysts at Barclays from $67.00 to $97.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 8.11% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Ciena from $68.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Ciena Stock Up 6.2 %

CIEN opened at $89.72 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 157.40, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 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. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $68.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.86. 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 earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Ciena announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan 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 buy up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following 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 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 the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the firm’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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the second quarter valued at $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 512 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 118.9% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 854 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.