Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Rating Upgraded by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has $88.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock, up from their previous target price of $84.00.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on CIEN. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays boosted their price target on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.77.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $84.65 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $81.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $66.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 148.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at $5,042,121.12. This trade represents a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,781 shares of company stock valued at $4,298,500 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,427,000 after buying an additional 53,078 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Ciena by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $148,348,000 after buying an additional 33,074 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 955,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $58,850,000 after buying an additional 6,605 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $57,861,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.