Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Coverage Initiated at Citigroup

Equities research analysts at Citigroup began coverage on shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) in a note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm set a “sell” rating and a $44.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective indicates a potential downside of 3.51% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on CIEN. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $56.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. BNP Paribas began coverage on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 target price on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.79.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $45.60 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 4.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a market cap of $6.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.99. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $39.94 and a fifty-two week high of $63.24. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $52.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $48.27.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.18. Ciena had a net margin of 5.22% and a return on equity of 9.92%. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.48 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.46 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.56, for a total value of $210,632.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 494,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,019,312.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 70,838 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.11, for a total value of $3,833,044.18. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 424,006 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,942,964.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.56, for a total transaction of $210,632.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 494,844 shares in the company, valued at $25,019,312.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 107,533 shares of company stock valued at $5,808,540 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ciena by 63.9% during the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 849 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 331 shares in the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter worth about $59,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth about $61,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth about $101,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.