Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup cut their target price on Ciena from $98.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed a “mixed” rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $65.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. Northland Securities set a $100.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Ciena from $76.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.31.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN opened at $81.38 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.57, a current ratio of 3.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $77.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $76.19. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $44.89 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44. The firm has a market cap of $11.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 113.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.11.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.08% and a net margin of 2.46%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.60, for a total transaction of $25,410.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 45,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,331,105.80. The trade was a 0.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,325 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.50, for a total value of $187,162.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 84,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,829,056.50. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 41,919 shares of company stock valued at $3,115,199. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 108.6% during the 4th quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 290 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Ciena by 328.2% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 73.7% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in Ciena by 77.2% in the fourth quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 34.7% in the first quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 636 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.