Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target Raised to $97.00

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its target price increased by Barclays from $67.00 to $97.00 in a report issued on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Northland Securities raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on Ciena from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Ciena Stock Up 6.2 %

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $89.72 on Friday. Ciena has a 12-month low of $42.20 and a 12-month 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 PE ratio of 157.40, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $68.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.92.

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). Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total transaction of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 1.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 6,989 shares of company stock worth $460,211. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter worth $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the second quarter valued at about $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 152.8% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 118.9% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 854 shares during the period. 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.