Analysts Set Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target at $77.00

Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $77.00.

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CIEN. BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the firm’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 owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total value of $1,137,776.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. This trade represents a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 30,219 shares of company stock worth $2,487,621. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Ciena by 1.4% during the third 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. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the second quarter worth $5,039,000. Atria Investments Inc bought a new stake in Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,988,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after buying an additional 108,407 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 119.6% during the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 239,389 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $14,744,000 after acquiring an additional 130,399 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $81.91 on Friday. 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’s 50 day moving average is $75.69 and its 200-day moving average is $62.56. Ciena has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $91.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.14, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

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.