Citigroup Issues Positive Forecast for Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Price

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its target price hoisted by analysts at Citigroup from $84.00 to $98.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 9.23% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on CIEN. Evercore ISI lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN stock opened at $89.72 on Friday. Ciena has a twelve month low of $42.20 and a twelve month high of $91.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a market cap of $12.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 157.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s fifty day moving average is $68.91 and its 200-day moving average is $57.86.

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

Ciena declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its position in Ciena by 119.9% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after buying an additional 2,943,146 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Ciena by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,427,000 after buying an additional 53,078 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 24.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $130,392,000 after buying an additional 523,313 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $148,348,000 after acquiring an additional 33,074 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.