Brokerages Set Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) PT at $78.77

Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $78.77.

Several analysts recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays upped their price target on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Northland Securities raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $79.49 on Monday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $85.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $72.51. Ciena has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $101.44. The stock has a market cap of $11.33 billion, a PE ratio of 139.45, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total transaction of $235,050.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,435,197.48. The trade was a 5.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 192,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. This trade represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in Ciena by 65.0% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 14,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $894,000 after acquiring an additional 5,717 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 241.5% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 399.6% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,378 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $146,000 after purchasing an additional 1,902 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its position in Ciena by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $380,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC increased its stake in Ciena by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 11,999 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $739,000 after buying an additional 950 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.