JPMorgan Chase & Co. Raises Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target to $250.00

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price objective lifted by equities research analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $215.00 to $250.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 14.25% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Evercore ISI set a $240.00 price objective on Ciena in a report on Thursday. Northland Securities set a $190.00 target price on shares of Ciena and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Argus upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $135.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Barclays lifted 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. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $120.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.38.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $218.82 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. Ciena has a 12 month low of $49.21 and a 12 month high of $248.00. The company has a market capitalization of $30.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 257.43, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.17. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $188.43 and its 200 day moving average is $128.83.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total transaction of $1,185,555.32. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 54,624 shares in the company, valued at $7,653,914.88. This represents a 13.41% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,863 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.14, for a total value of $262,943.82. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 43,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,143,965.34. The trade was 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 $8,707,266 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. World Investment Advisors acquired a new position in Ciena during the second quarter valued at $253,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 375.4% during the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,235,696 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $100,499,000 after buying an additional 975,792 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 516.6% in the 1st quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 18,719 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,131,000 after buying an additional 15,683 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 7.4% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,243,053 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $426,420,000 after buying an additional 359,579 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in Ciena by 322.8% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 34,035 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,912,000 after acquiring an additional 25,986 shares during the period. 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.