Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nineteen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eleven have given a buy recommendation and three have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $153.20.

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $105.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $127.50 to $175.00 in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley raised Ciena from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $100.00 to $140.00 in a report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, October 13th.

Ciena Trading Up 0.7%

NYSE:CIEN opened at $196.05 on Wednesday. Ciena has a 12-month low of $49.21 and a 12-month high of $214.17. The firm has a market cap of $27.65 billion, a PE ratio of 202.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 3.28, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $171.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $117.45.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $844.44 million for the quarter. Ciena had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 3.10%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total transaction of $1,185,555.32. Following the sale, the director owned 54,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,653,914.88. This trade represents a 13.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,863 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.14, for a total transaction of $262,943.82. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 43,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,143,965.34. This represents a 4.10% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 51,935 shares of company stock worth $8,029,442 in the last three months. 0.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in Ciena in the first quarter valued at $1,137,000. HB Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Ciena by 12.7% during the first quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,971 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $482,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 38,910 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,351,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 28.6% in the 1st 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 during the period. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd grew its stake in Ciena by 245.0% during the 1st quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 75,319 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $4,552,000 after buying an additional 53,488 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.