Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation and nine have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $57.25.

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on CIEN shares. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Ciena from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. B. Riley dropped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ciena from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $53.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th.

Ciena Stock Down 1.0 %

CIEN stock opened at $46.58 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $47.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $49.40. The company has a market capitalization of $6.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.58 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 3.88 and a quick ratio of 2.76. Ciena has a 12 month low of $39.94 and a 12 month high of $63.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $910.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $895.80 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 7.16%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total value of $26,442.13. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 41,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,052,464.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 3,156 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.74, for a total transaction of $144,355.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 51,171 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,340,561.54. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $26,442.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 41,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,052,464.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,641 shares of company stock worth $1,031,032 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pathstone Family Office LLC increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 43.7% during the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Family Office LLC now owns 7,431 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $351,000 after acquiring an additional 2,261 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ciena by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 17,585 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $833,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp acquired a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter worth $101,000. Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its position in Ciena by 11.4% in the third quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 27,135 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,282,000 after buying an additional 2,773 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at $1,356,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.