Wall Street Zen Upgrades Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) to “Buy”

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Friday.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $90.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $78.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $102.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Ciena to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $114.32.

Ciena Stock Performance

Ciena stock opened at $116.57 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $89.35 and a 200-day moving average of $77.29. Ciena has a 1 year low of $49.21 and a 1 year high of $122.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 3.40 and a quick ratio of 2.57. The company has a market capitalization of $16.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 120.18, a P/E/G 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). The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 3.10% and a return on equity of 6.61%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.27 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total value of $631,924.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 305,157 shares in the company, valued at $28,358,240.01. This trade represents a 2.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 2,044 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.64, for a total value of $166,872.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 47,198 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 39,769 shares of company stock worth $3,326,705. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter worth $219,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted 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 in 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. lifted 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 in the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC lifted 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 in 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.