Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Lowered to Neutral at BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas lowered shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) from an outperform rating to a neutral rating in a research note published on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $67.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock, up from their previous target price of $59.00.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Citigroup raised Ciena from a sell rating to a buy rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Bank of America reissued a neutral rating and set a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $62.92.

Ciena Stock Up 3.4 %

NYSE CIEN opened at $67.44 on Wednesday. Ciena has a 1 year low of $39.94 and a 1 year high of $68.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.69 billion, a PE ratio of 64.85, a PEG ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. The business’s 50-day moving average is $56.04 and its 200 day moving average is $50.82.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.36 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at $10,368,269.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was 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 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 firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at $10,368,269.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $502,953. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during 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 period. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the 1st quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Ciena during the first quarter valued at $40,000. 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.