Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Reaches New 12-Month High on Analyst Upgrade

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $60.00 to $63.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Ciena traded as high as $67.55 and last traded at $67.24, with a volume of 825577 shares. The stock had previously closed at $65.25.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on CIEN. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.92.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $502,953. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $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 valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new stake in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 1st quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter worth about $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Up 1.5 %

The business has a fifty day moving average price of $56.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $50.94. The firm has a market cap of $9.84 billion, a PE ratio of 65.87, a P/E/G ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The firm’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 EPS for the current year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.