Brokerages Set Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Target Price at $81.38

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

Several equities analysts have issued reports on CIEN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup lifted 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. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and set a $89.00 price target (down from $97.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $62.75 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 110.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $101.44. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $79.21 and a 200-day moving average of $73.85.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 59,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. This represents a 22.18 % 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 2,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.88, for a total transaction of $172,200.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 207,370 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,283,645.60. This represents a 1.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,560 shares of company stock valued at $5,406,323 in the last 90 days. 0.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. 111 Capital acquired a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at about $428,000. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $106,000. Forum Financial Management LP bought a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $259,000. Orion Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $42,000. Finally, Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $216,000. 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.