Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Friday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $84.00 to $98.00. The stock had previously closed at $84.52, but opened at $87.16. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Ciena shares last traded at $88.78, with a volume of 704,051 shares.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible 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 stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Ciena by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 4.6% in the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 2.4% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 5.4% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $380,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $68.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.81. The stock has a market cap of $12.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 157.40, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The company’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.