Brokerages Set Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target at $63.08

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) has earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $63.08.

A number of research firms have commented on CIEN. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Evercore ISI downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN stock opened at $64.12 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena has a one year low of $39.94 and a one year high of $69.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.21 billion, a PE ratio of 61.65, a P/E/G ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $60.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $52.30.

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

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,552,877.04. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,552,877.04. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123 over the last 90 days. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Ciena by 1,171.4% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 44,854 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,161,000 after purchasing an additional 41,326 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank bought a new position in Ciena in the second quarter worth $661,000. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the second quarter worth $5,039,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Ciena by 13.8% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,499,035 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $72,223,000 after purchasing an additional 181,358 shares during the period. Finally, Deepwater Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the first quarter worth $1,587,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.