Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Sets New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $60.00 to $63.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Ciena traded as high as $67.55 and last traded at $67.24, with a volume of 825577 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $65.25.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday, September 23rd. BNP Paribas cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were 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 owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,368,269.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $502,953 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda purchased a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the first quarter worth $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the first quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the second quarter valued at $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Up 3.0 %

The stock has a market cap of $9.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.74, a P/E/G ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $55.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $50.70.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 EPS for the current year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.