Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Rating Upgraded by Bank of America

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) was upgraded by investment analysts at Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $95.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $70.00. Bank of America‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 5.88% from the company’s previous close.

CIEN has been the topic of several other research reports. Evercore ISI cut Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Ciena from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on Ciena from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $89.72 on Friday. Ciena has a 52-week low of $42.20 and a 52-week high of $91.25. 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 cap of $12.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 157.40, a PEG ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s 50 day moving average is $68.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.86.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted 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 the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in Ciena by 152.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 241.5% during the 3rd 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 period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.