Ciena (CIEN) to Release Earnings on Thursday

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) is scheduled to be posting its quarterly earnings results before the market opens on Thursday, December 12th. Analysts expect Ciena to post earnings of $0.66 per share for the quarter. Individual that are interested in registering for the company’s earnings conference call can do so using this link.

Ciena Stock Down 2.8 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $70.94 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $67.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. Ciena has a twelve month low of $42.20 and a twelve month high of $75.11. The company has a market capitalization of $10.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 75.47, a PEG ratio of 5.98 and a beta of 0.95.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on CIEN shares. Barclays raised their target price on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Ciena from $68.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.15.

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.