Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target Raised to $260.00

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its target price increased by Bank of America from $200.00 to $260.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 8th. BNP Paribas set a $185.00 price target on shares of Ciena and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. BNP Paribas Exane raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, October 13th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ciena in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Ciena from $138.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $236.38.

Ciena Stock Down 9.7%

CIEN opened at $218.82 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a current ratio of 2.73. The company has a market capitalization of $30.87 billion, a PE ratio of 257.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $188.43 and its 200-day moving average is $129.16. Ciena has a one year low of $49.21 and a one year high of $248.00.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.15. Ciena had a return on equity of 8.38% and a net margin of 2.59%.The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.54 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.61, for a total transaction of $1,309,748.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 254,870 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,090,510.70. This trade represents a 2.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total value of $1,185,555.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 54,624 shares in the company, valued at $7,653,914.88. This represents a 13.41% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 44,785 shares of company stock worth $7,734,906. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. LPL Financial LLC grew its position in Ciena by 28.6% during the first quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 48,879 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,954,000 after purchasing an additional 10,856 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 15.4% during the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,147 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the period. Prudential PLC boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 16.7% during the 1st quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 5,869 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $355,000 after buying an additional 839 shares during the period. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 60.5% during the 1st quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 6,009 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $363,000 after acquiring an additional 2,266 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the first quarter worth $816,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.