Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Hits New 1-Year High Following Analyst Upgrade

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN)’s share price hit a new 52-week high on Monday after Rosenblatt Securities upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to a buy rating. Rosenblatt Securities now has a $175.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $127.50. Ciena traded as high as $146.41 and last traded at $145.30, with a volume of 149642 shares. The stock had previously closed at $141.93.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on CIEN. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Ciena from $120.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Northland Securities set a $100.00 price target on Ciena in a report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $70.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $122.86.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total transaction of $926,160.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 298,357 shares in the company, valued at $40,636,223.40. The trade was a 2.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,863 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.14, for a total value of $262,943.82. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 43,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,143,965.34. This represents a 4.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 38,924 shares of company stock worth $4,317,247. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Atreides Management LP bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 2nd quarter worth about $102,705,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the first quarter valued at approximately $70,065,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 3,577.9% in the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,032,393 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $83,965,000 after purchasing an additional 1,004,323 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 375.4% during the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,235,696 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $100,499,000 after buying an additional 975,792 shares during the period. Finally, Rokos Capital Management LLP boosted its stake in Ciena by 546.9% in the 2nd quarter. Rokos Capital Management LLP now owns 997,425 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $81,106,000 after buying an additional 843,235 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Up 1.6%

The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 3.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $106.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $84.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 148.59, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.16.

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.