Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has issued a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $58.79.

Several analysts have commented on CIEN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Ciena from $56.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 target price on the stock.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $48.95 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.08 billion, a PE ratio of 31.79, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $49.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $48.41. Ciena has a 1-year low of $39.94 and a 1-year high of $63.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.29 and a quick ratio of 3.12.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.18. Ciena had a net margin of 5.22% and a return on equity of 9.92%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.48 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total value of $26,442.13. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 41,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,052,464.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.80, for a total transaction of $186,636.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 385,109 shares in the company, valued at $17,252,883.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $26,442.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 41,372 shares in the company, valued at $2,052,464.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,351 shares of company stock worth $1,921,835 in the last 90 days. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. now owns 14,600 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $657,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 26,281 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,300,000 after acquiring an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC now owns 9,774 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $462,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 8,321 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Ciena by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 42,933 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,029,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.