Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Upgraded at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $95.00 price objective on the communications equipment provider’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $70.00.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Ciena from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Evercore ISI lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays raised their price target on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $89.72 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.96 billion, a PE ratio of 157.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. Ciena has a 12-month low of $42.20 and a 12-month high of $91.25. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $68.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $57.92.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 1.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,989 shares of company stock worth $460,211 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Ciena in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP grew its position in Ciena by 118.9% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $76,000 after acquiring an additional 854 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

About Ciena

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.