Comparing Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) & Clearfield (NASDAQ:CLFD)

Clearfield (NASDAQ:CLFD) and Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) are both technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, risk and profitability.

Volatility and Risk

Clearfield has a beta of 2.06, meaning that its share price is 106% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ciena has a beta of 1.33, meaning that its share price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Clearfield and Ciena, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Clearfield	1	1	5	0	2.57
Ciena	0	6	15	1	2.77

Clearfield currently has a consensus price target of $41.75, suggesting a potential upside of 38.29%. Ciena has a consensus price target of $485.93, suggesting a potential upside of 78.26%. Given Ciena’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ciena is more favorable than Clearfield.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Clearfield and Ciena”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Clearfield	$150.13 million	2.73	-$8.05 million	($0.51)	-59.20
Ciena	$4.77 billion	8.10	$123.34 million	$4.48	60.85

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

88.7% of Clearfield shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.0% of Ciena shares are held by institutional investors. 17.8% of Clearfield shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Ciena shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Clearfield and Ciena’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Clearfield	-4.71%	1.61%	1.45%
Ciena	10.87%	25.33%	11.27%

Summary

Ciena beats Clearfield on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Clearfield

Clearfield, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLFD) designs, manufactures and sells fiber optic connectivity products used to deploy, manage and protect broadband networks. Its portfolio includes fiber distribution cabinets, panels, terminals, enclosures, splice solutions and other components that support fiber installation from the central office or data center through the outside plant and to end users. The company markets its products under brands including FieldSmart and WaveSmart. Clearfield’s solutions are designed for communications service providers, community broadband operators, utilities, municipalities, government organizations and other network owners building fiber-to-the-home, fiber-to-the-premises and related broadband infrastructure.

About Ciena

Ciena is a communications networking company that develops equipment, software and services used to build and manage telecommunications networks. Its offerings support the movement of data across fiber-optic, subsea and other network infrastructure. The company’s products include optical transport systems, routing and switching equipment, and software for network automation and management. Ciena also provides consulting, implementation and support services to help customers plan, deploy and operate their networks.