Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Upgraded to “Buy” at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. Bank of America currently has $95.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $70.00.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on Ciena from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 7th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $89.72 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $68.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $57.81. 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 company has a market capitalization of $12.96 billion, a PE ratio of 157.40, a PEG ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. Ciena has a 1-year low of $42.20 and a 1-year high of $91.25.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. Ciena’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was 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 directly owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the second quarter valued at about $5,039,000. Atria Investments Inc acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,988,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Ciena by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,499,035 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $72,223,000 after acquiring an additional 181,358 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Ciena by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,334,290,000 after acquiring an additional 108,407 shares during the period. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC grew its stake in Ciena by 119.6% during the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 239,389 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $14,744,000 after purchasing an additional 130,399 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently 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.