Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $81.38.

CIEN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.16, for a total value of $31,556.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,435,601.52. This trade represents a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total transaction of $235,050.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,607 shares in the company, valued at $4,435,197.48. This represents a 5.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 66,742 shares of company stock valued at $5,469,173. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Ciena by 195.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $392,345,000 after acquiring an additional 3,062,883 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 113.7% during the fourth quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 2,169,406 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $183,987,000 after buying an additional 1,154,260 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the third quarter worth approximately $57,861,000. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 4,215.9% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 899,828 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $76,314,000 after acquiring an additional 878,979 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Investment Management Group LLC purchased a new position in Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at $56,997,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $69.23 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $80.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $73.98. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena has a 52 week low of $43.30 and a 52 week high of $101.44. The stock has a market cap of $9.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 121.46, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

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.