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

Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $78.77.

A number of analysts recently issued reports on CIEN shares. Northland Securities raised their price target on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. This trade represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total value of $235,050.48. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,435,197.48. This represents a 5.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Creative Planning grew its stake in Ciena by 65.0% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 14,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $894,000 after purchasing an additional 5,717 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in Ciena by 241.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in Ciena by 399.6% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,378 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $146,000 after purchasing an additional 1,902 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in Ciena by 5.4% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $380,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC grew its stake in Ciena by 8.6% in the third quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 11,999 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $739,000 after purchasing an additional 950 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Up 1.9 %

NYSE CIEN opened at $79.49 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. The company has a market capitalization of $11.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 139.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. Ciena has a one year low of $43.30 and a one year high of $101.44. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $85.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $72.19.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Ciena

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.