Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Reaches New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $95.27 and last traded at $94.82, with a volume of 3401911 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $88.68.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

Ciena Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $13.73 billion, a PE ratio of 169.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $80.64 and its 200 day moving average is $65.91. 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 (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. Ciena’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.29, for a total transaction of $579,972.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 418,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,732,160.21. The trade was a 1.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,781 shares of company stock valued at $4,298,500 over the last 90 days. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at about $57,861,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 428.2% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 886,354 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $42,705,000 after purchasing an additional 718,551 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at about $40,416,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at about $35,403,000. Finally, LMR Partners LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at about $17,236,000. Hedge funds and other 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.