Ciena’s (CIEN) “Neutral” Rating Reaffirmed at Bank of America

Bank of America reiterated their neutral rating on shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) in a report released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Bank of America currently has a $260.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on CIEN. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $138.00 to $279.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Evercore ISI set a $240.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. B. Riley reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, December 12th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $237.50.

Ciena Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $241.09 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $33.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 283.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.13. 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 fifty day moving average of $219.36 and a 200 day moving average of $159.14. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $49.21 and a fifty-two week high of $261.13.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 8.38% and a net margin of 2.59%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.54 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, Director Patrick Gallagher sold 11,618 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, January 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.45, for a total transaction of $2,642,514.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 50,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,414,350.80. The trade was a 18.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 8,554 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.66, for a total transaction of $1,921,741.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 9,422 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,116,746.52. This represents a 47.59% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 167,890 shares of company stock worth $38,277,035. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,088,445 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,227,143,000 after buying an additional 103,199 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 23.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,462,840 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $941,451,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219,787 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Ciena by 10.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,495,795 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $284,313,000 after acquiring an additional 329,821 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Ciena by 35.0% in the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,708,540 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $220,286,000 after purchasing an additional 702,909 shares during the period. Finally, Lone Pine Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter worth $292,310,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Ciena News

Here are the key news stories impacting Ciena this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks put CIEN on its January 19 “Best Growth Stocks” list (Rank #1 / Strong Buy), which can attract momentum and retail/institutional buyers looking for growth exposure. Zacks: Best Growth Stocks
• Positive Sentiment: A Yahoo Finance piece highlights CIEN’s revenue growth and network milestones, drawing investor attention to the company’s secular demand in optical/network buildouts — a fundamental positive for longer-term revenue and margin outlook. Assessing Ciena Valuation
• Positive Sentiment: Forbes ran a comparative piece (Arista vs. Ciena) noting Ciena has climbed year-to-date, which may encourage additional buying from investors re-evaluating peer valuations and positioning within networking stocks. Arista vs Ciena: Which Is Stronger?
• Neutral Sentiment: Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on CIEN but set a $260 price target (~mid-single-digit to high-single-digit upside from current levels). That endorsement curbs downside but is not a clear buy signal. Benzinga coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: An InsiderMonkey hedge-fund roundup mentioned CIEN among many funds/holdings; broad coverage can increase visibility but the piece did not signal a material position shift. Hedge Fund & Insider Trading News
• Negative Sentiment: Material insider selling: SVP Jason Phipps sold 21,383 shares (~$5.3M) and CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,993 shares (~$741k) on Jan 15. Large insider sales can spook short-term traders even if executives retain significant holdings. SEC filings: Phipps SEC Filing and CEO SEC Filing

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena’s product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.