Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Reaches New 1-Year High on Analyst Upgrade

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on the stock from $75.00 to $80.00. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock. Ciena traded as high as $73.49 and last traded at $73.16, with a volume of 407681 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $71.05.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.23.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were 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 directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Ciena in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the period. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Ciena by 152.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP boosted its position in Ciena by 118.9% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $76,000 after purchasing an additional 854 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Up 3.0 %

The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $66.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.40. The firm has a market cap of $10.57 billion, a PE ratio of 77.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.65 and a beta of 0.95.

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

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

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.