Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Upgraded at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has $88.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $84.00.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays upped their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.77.

Ciena Trading Up 4.0 %

Ciena stock opened at $84.65 on Tuesday. Ciena has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 148.51, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $81.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $66.83.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued 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 return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.29, for a total value of $579,972.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 418,949 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,732,160.21. This represents a 1.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on 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 $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,781 shares of company stock worth $4,298,500 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 390,148 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $33,088,000 after purchasing an additional 2,594 shares during the last quarter. First Merchants Corp acquired a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter worth $207,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in Ciena by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 40,100 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,401,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,129,000. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 21.8% in the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 799,546 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $67,810,000 after acquiring an additional 143,350 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.