Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) has earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $61.00.

CIEN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Citigroup raised shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday. Finally, Raymond James cut shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $59.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 6th.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,635,840. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,712 shares of company stock worth $498,637 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth about $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth about $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the second quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its position in shares of Ciena by 339.5% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $62.46 on Friday. Ciena has a 52 week low of $39.94 and a 52 week high of $63.24. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $53.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.96. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.06, a PEG ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.36 EPS. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.15 EPS for the current 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.