Argus Increases Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target to $135.00

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its target price upped by investment analysts at Argus from $100.00 to $135.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Argus’ target price indicates a potential upside of 15.81% from the stock’s previous close.

CIEN has been the subject of several other reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 6th. B. Riley reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $113.00 price objective (up from $90.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $70.00 price objective (down from $73.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $114.32.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $116.57 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a current ratio of 3.40. Ciena has a 1 year low of $49.21 and a 1 year high of $122.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $89.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.29. The company has a market cap of $16.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.18, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.16.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 6.61% and a net margin of 3.10%.The business had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.27 earnings per share. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.94, for a total value of $31,829.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 43,268 shares in the company, valued at $3,934,791.92. The trade was a 0.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.23, for a total transaction of $559,164.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 325,557 shares in the company, valued at $26,770,552.11. This represents a 2.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 39,769 shares of company stock worth $3,326,705. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at $219,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 40.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,960 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $179,000 after acquiring an additional 851 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at $2,398,000. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ciena by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 534 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 28.6% during the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 48,879 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,954,000 after acquiring an additional 10,856 shares during the last quarter. 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.