Stifel Nicolaus Boosts Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target to $100.00

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price target hoisted by analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $90.00 to $100.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ price target indicates a potential downside of 14.51% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Northland Securities set a $100.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Ciena from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Ciena to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $91.54.

Ciena Trading Up 23.4%

NYSE:CIEN opened at $116.97 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a current ratio of 3.40. The firm has a market cap of $16.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 162.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.16. Ciena has a 52 week low of $49.21 and a 52 week high of $122.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $88.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $77.17.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.08). Ciena had a return on equity of 5.08% and a net margin of 2.46%.The company had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.27 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,325 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.50, for a total transaction of $187,162.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 84,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,829,056.50. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 2,044 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Friday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.64, for a total transaction of $166,872.16. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 47,198 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,853,244.72. This represents a 4.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 39,769 shares of company stock valued at $3,326,705 in the last quarter. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter worth $219,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 40.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,960 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $179,000 after acquiring an additional 851 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter worth $2,398,000. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 534 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 28.6% during the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 48,879 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,954,000 after acquiring an additional 10,856 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.