Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) was upgraded by research analysts at Goldman Sachs Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Monday, The Fly reports.
Several other brokerages have also recently commented on CIEN. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Wednesday, October 4th. BidaskClub raised Ciena from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 25th. Piper Jaffray Companies reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, October 12th. B. Riley reduced their price target on Ciena from $30.50 to $28.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 5th. Finally, MKM Partners reissued a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $28.48.
Shares of Ciena (CIEN) traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $21.94. Ciena has a one year low of $19.40 and a one year high of $27.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.68. The company has a market capitalization of $3,150.00, a P/E ratio of 3.17, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.67.
Ciena announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, December 7th that allows the company to repurchase $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.
In other news, CFO James E. Moylan, Jr. sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.10, for a total transaction of $42,200.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 113,735 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.22, for a total value of $2,413,456.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 207,217 shares of company stock worth $4,391,465 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.45% of the company’s stock.
Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 8.2% during the second quarter. Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. now owns 847,006 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $21,193,000 after purchasing an additional 63,846 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the second quarter worth approximately $1,219,000. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 23.0% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 112,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,818,000 after purchasing an additional 21,028 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.4% during the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 94,559 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,366,000 after purchasing an additional 1,320 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 11.3% during the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 5,085 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $127,000 after purchasing an additional 517 shares during the period.
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Ciena Company Profile
Ciena Corporation is a network strategy and technology company, which provides solutions that enable a range of network operators to adopt communication architectures and deliver an array of services, relied upon by enterprise and consumer end users. It provides equipment, software and services that support the transport, switching, aggregation, service delivery and management of voice, video and data traffic on communications networks.
