Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $57.73.

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on Ciena from $52.50 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Ciena from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ciena from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $53.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, B. Riley dropped their price target on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total transaction of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,368,269.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total transaction of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,368,269.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at $4,635,840. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Riverwater Partners LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 0.9% during the first quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 26,281 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,300,000 after buying an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 4.6% in the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in Ciena by 17.4% during the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 3,465 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $167,000 after purchasing an additional 514 shares during the last quarter. Lumbard & Kellner LLC raised its stake in Ciena by 0.9% during the second quarter. Lumbard & Kellner LLC now owns 65,799 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,170,000 after purchasing an additional 612 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in Ciena by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 30,862 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,487,000 after purchasing an additional 632 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $57.65 on Monday. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $39.94 and a fifty-two week high of $63.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.28 billion, a PE ratio of 55.43, a P/E/G ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.76 and a current ratio of 3.88. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $50.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $49.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $910.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $895.80 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 7.16%. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current year.

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.