Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target Raised to $97.00

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its target price boosted by equities research analysts at Barclays from $67.00 to $97.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 8.11% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on Ciena from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Ciena Trading Up 6.2 %

CIEN stock opened at $89.72 on Friday. Ciena has a 52 week low of $42.20 and a 52 week high of $91.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $68.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.86. The company has a market capitalization of $12.96 billion, a PE ratio of 157.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051 in the last ninety days. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 3.8% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Ciena by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $380,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Ciena by 424.4% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by 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.