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

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price objective increased by Rosenblatt Securities from $75.00 to $94.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. Rosenblatt Securities currently has a neutral rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered 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. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

Ciena Trading Up 6.2 %

NYSE:CIEN opened at $89.72 on Friday. 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’s 50 day moving average is $68.91 and its 200-day moving average is $57.92. The firm has a market cap of $12.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 157.40, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. Ciena has a 12 month low of $42.20 and a 12 month high of $91.25.

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

Ciena declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. The trade was a 1.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,989 shares of company stock valued at $460,211 in the last three months. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 4.6% in the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its position in Ciena by 2.4% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its holdings in Ciena by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $380,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. 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.