Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

CIEN has been the subject of several other research reports. Raymond James Financial set a $240.00 price target on Ciena in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $200.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus set a $270.00 price objective on Ciena in a report on Thursday. Finally, BNP Paribas set a $185.00 target price on Ciena and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.38.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $216.26 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $30.51 billion, a PE ratio of 254.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.17. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $189.69 and a 200-day moving average of $130.11. Ciena has a one year low of $49.21 and a one year high of $248.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.09.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 8.38% and a net margin of 2.59%.Ciena’s quarterly revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.54 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.36, for a total value of $59,276.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 40,653 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,884,992.08. The trade was a 0.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.61, for a total transaction of $1,309,748.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 254,870 shares in the company, valued at $49,090,510.70. This trade represents a 2.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 44,785 shares of company stock valued at $7,734,906 in the last three months. 0.93% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Community Bank N.A. acquired a new stake in Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its position in Ciena by 50.4% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 200 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 104.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 204 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Salomon & Ludwin LLC purchased a new position in Ciena in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Company Profile

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.