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

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $78.77.

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities raised their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th.

Ciena Stock Down 2.7 %

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $84.15 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $12.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 147.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. Ciena has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $86.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $71.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total transaction of $235,050.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,435,197.48. This trade represents a 5.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 56,642 shares of company stock valued at $4,818,176. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Greenleaf Trust boosted its stake in Ciena by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 4,978 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $422,000 after buying an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 108.6% in 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 buying an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ciena by 73.7% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in Ciena by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,459 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $887,000 after buying an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.