Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Raised to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Sunday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. B. Riley Financial cut their price target on shares of Ciena from $516.00 to $413.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 31st. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Ciena from $508.00 to $394.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 4th. Evercore raised shares of Ciena from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $375.00 to $550.00 in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $485.93.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $336.47 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $368.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $399.77. Ciena has a one year low of $168.22 and a one year high of $637.51. The firm has a market cap of $47.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 75.10, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 3.80 and a quick ratio of 3.17.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 3rd. The communications equipment provider reported $2.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 25.33% and a net margin of 10.87%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 37.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Ciena will post 6.00 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, EVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.52, for a total transaction of $568,612.72. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 39,570 shares in the company, valued at $14,186,636.40. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Jason Phipps sold 2,629 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $355.19, for a total transaction of $933,794.51. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 57,388 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,383,643.72. This represents a 4.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 36,014 shares of company stock valued at $13,457,571. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. TKG Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the 1st quarter worth $3,244,000. Swiss National Bank boosted its position in Ciena by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 413,332 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $160,468,000 after buying an additional 26,900 shares during the last quarter. Wealth High Governance Capital Ltda acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter valued at $10,883,000. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 983.2% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 17,168 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,665,000 after buying an additional 15,583 shares during the period. Finally, Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 126.0% in the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 8,413 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,968,000 after buying an additional 4,691 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Company Profile

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a networking technology company that provides hardware, software, and services for communications networks. Its solutions help telecommunications carriers, cloud providers, enterprises, government organizations, and research institutions build, manage, and automate high-capacity networks.

The company’s portfolio includes optical networking systems, routing and switching platforms, network automation software, and network management tools. Ciena also offers consulting, implementation, maintenance, and professional services designed to support network planning, deployment, optimization, and ongoing operations.