Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target Raised to $430.00 at Stifel Nicolaus

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its target price boosted by Stifel Nicolaus from $320.00 to $430.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on CIEN. B. Riley Financial increased their target price on Ciena from $222.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Zacks Research upgraded Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Wall Street Zen cut Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, December 21st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Argus raised their price objective on Ciena from $135.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $327.12.

Ciena Trading Up 6.5%

Shares of CIEN opened at $408.78 on Monday. Ciena has a 1-year low of $49.21 and a 1-year high of $419.80. The company has a current ratio of 2.81, a quick ratio of 2.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $302.27 and its 200-day moving average price is $227.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 260.37, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.07.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.18. Ciena had a net margin of 4.47% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.64 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $359.53, for a total value of $1,061,332.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 293,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $105,372,490.52. The trade was a 1.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 11,929 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.82, for a total transaction of $2,741,522.78. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 49,475 shares in the company, valued at $11,370,344.50. This represents a 19.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 143,283 shares of company stock valued at $34,372,491 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at $2,747,810,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 30,114.5% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,870,677 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $671,365,000 after buying an additional 2,861,176 shares during the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the third quarter worth $292,310,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 53.0% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,051,625 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $947,554,000 after acquiring an additional 1,404,132 shares during the period. Finally, Atreides Management LP purchased a new stake in Ciena during the second quarter valued at $102,705,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Company Profile

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.