Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Rating Lowered to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $120.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Barclays boosted their target price on Ciena from $102.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Argus upped their target price on Ciena from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Ciena from $105.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $137.53.

Ciena Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $199.15 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $28.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 205.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.17. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $153.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $107.02. Ciena has a 12-month low of $49.21 and a 12-month high of $203.40. The company has a current ratio of 3.28, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Ciena had a net margin of 3.10% and a return on equity of 6.62%. The firm had revenue of $844.44 million for the quarter. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.36, for a total value of $59,276.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 40,653 shares in the company, valued at $6,884,992.08. The trade was a 0.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total value of $1,185,555.32. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 54,624 shares in the company, valued at $7,653,914.88. This represents a 13.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 52,174 shares of company stock worth $7,231,504 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Atreides Management LP purchased a new position in Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $102,705,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 23.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,462,840 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $941,451,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219,787 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the first quarter worth $70,065,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 3,577.9% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,032,393 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $83,965,000 after purchasing an additional 1,004,323 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 375.4% during the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,235,696 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $100,499,000 after purchasing an additional 975,792 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.