Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target Raised to $97.00

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price objective raised by Barclays from $67.00 to $97.00 in a report published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on CIEN. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Evercore ISI cut shares of 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, Morgan Stanley cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.00.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $89.72 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $68.91 and its 200-day moving average is $57.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.96 billion, a PE ratio of 157.40, a PEG ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $42.20 and a fifty-two week high of $91.25.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has approved 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 reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 1.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 6,989 shares of company stock worth $460,211. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC raised its position in Ciena by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its position in shares of Ciena by 119.9% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,943,146 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Ciena by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $273,427,000 after acquiring an additional 53,078 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 24.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $130,392,000 after acquiring an additional 523,313 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Ciena by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $148,348,000 after purchasing an additional 33,074 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.