Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Receives Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the thirteen ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $78.77.

CIEN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Ciena from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price target for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 192,997 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,781 shares of company stock worth $4,298,500 over the last 90 days. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $202,000. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in Ciena by 640.7% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 64,466 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $3,106,000 after buying an additional 55,763 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in Ciena by 490.2% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 50,062 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $2,412,000 after acquiring an additional 41,580 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its stake in Ciena by 13.7% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 8,799 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $424,000 after purchasing an additional 1,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP lifted 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 buying an additional 854 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN traded up $3.29 on Thursday, reaching $84.65. 2,434,309 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,759,045. The business's 50-day moving average is $81.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $66.70. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $43.30 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 148.51, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.89.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last issued 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 company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The business's revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.59 EPS for the current year.

Ciena announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

About Ciena

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.