Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) PT Raised to $68.00 at Stifel Nicolaus

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its target price lifted by research analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $62.00 to $68.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ price target suggests a potential upside of 23.79% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ciena from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $53.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Ciena from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.67.

Ciena Trading Down 0.8 %

NYSE:CIEN opened at $54.93 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $50.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $49.97. Ciena has a 52 week low of $39.94 and a 52 week high of $63.24. The company has a quick ratio of 2.76, a current ratio of 3.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market cap of $7.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.82, a PEG ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 7.16%. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,635,840. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,635,840. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total transaction of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,368,269.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. LHM Inc. grew its stake in Ciena by 64.0% during the second quarter. LHM Inc. now owns 83,725 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,034,000 after acquiring an additional 32,668 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in Ciena by 10.4% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 29,614 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,427,000 after acquiring an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 118.9% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 854 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 13.7% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 8,799 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $424,000 after buying an additional 1,062 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter worth $5,039,000. 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.