Ciena (CIEN) Competitors

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) and Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability, media sentiment and community ranking.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor FFIV or CIEN?

F5 received 47 more outperform votes than Ciena when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 76.32% of users gave Ciena an outperform vote while only 66.56% of users gave F5 an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
F5	Outperform Votes 1294 66.56%	Underperform Votes 650 33.44%
Ciena	Outperform Votes 1247 76.32%	Underperform Votes 387 23.68%

Which has more risk & volatility, FFIV or CIEN?

F5 has a beta of 1.14, meaning that its share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ciena has a beta of 1.15, meaning that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in FFIV or CIEN?

90.7% of F5 shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.0% of Ciena shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of F5 shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Ciena shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has better valuation and earnings, FFIV or CIEN?

F5 has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Ciena. F5 is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ciena, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
F5	$2.89B	5.24	$566.78M	$10.06	26.11
Ciena	$4.05B	2.05	$83.96M	$0.54	108.22

Do analysts rate FFIV or CIEN?

F5 currently has a consensus price target of $285.78, suggesting a potential upside of 8.79%. Ciena has a consensus price target of $79.62, suggesting a potential upside of 36.23%. Given Ciena's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ciena is more favorable than F5.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
F5	1 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Ciena	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.79

Is FFIV or CIEN more profitable?

F5 has a net margin of 20.58% compared to Ciena's net margin of 2.09%. F5's return on equity of 20.98% beat Ciena's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
F5	20.58%	20.98%	11.57%
Ciena	2.09%	4.72%	2.42%

Does the media prefer FFIV or CIEN?

In the previous week, F5 had 8 more articles in the media than Ciena. MarketBeat recorded 29 mentions for F5 and 21 mentions for Ciena. Ciena's average media sentiment score of 1.21 beat F5's score of 1.12 indicating that Ciena is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
F5	19 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	6 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Ciena	12 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Ciena beats F5 on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.