Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Given Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the thirteen analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $63.08.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CIEN. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Ciena from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Ciena from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Northland Securities restated a "market perform" rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $568,123. Insiders own 0.83% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new position in Ciena in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Register Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena in the 1st quarter worth $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the second quarter valued at about $40,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock traded down $0.40 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $66.16. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,404,725 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,822,622. Ciena has a 12 month low of $39.94 and a 12 month high of $69.91. 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 company has a market capitalization of $9.51 billion, a PE ratio of 63.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.94. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $59.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $51.83.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.36 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.

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.