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

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Friday after Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on the stock from $80.00 to $95.00. The stock had previously closed at $84.52, but opened at $87.16. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock. Ciena shares last traded at $88.78, with a volume of 704,051 shares.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Ciena from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.15.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, 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 in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051 in the last quarter. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. FMR LLC increased its position in Ciena by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 119.9% during the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after purchasing an additional 2,943,146 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Ciena by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,427,000 after purchasing an additional 53,078 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Ciena by 24.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $130,392,000 after buying an additional 523,313 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 1.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $148,348,000 after purchasing an additional 33,074 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

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 $12.81 billion, a PE ratio of 89.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $68.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $57.52.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for 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 for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized 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 buy up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is 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.