Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target Raised to $75.00 at Stifel Nicolaus

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price target lifted by Stifel Nicolaus from $68.00 to $75.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and increased their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ciena from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Needham & Company LLC restated a buy rating and issued a $65.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Bank of America reaffirmed a neutral rating and issued a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a market perform rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $62.92.

Ciena Trading Down 0.0 %

CIEN opened at $68.47 on Wednesday. Ciena has a 12-month low of $39.94 and a 12-month high of $69.91. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $9.89 billion, a PE ratio of 72.84, a P/E/G ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $56.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $51.08.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The business had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan 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 buy up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,368,269.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at $10,368,269.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $502,953. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the first quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at $40,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.