Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Rating Reiterated by Bank of America

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reissued by research analysts at Bank of America in a research report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $59.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 10.96% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also commented on CIEN. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Barclays raised their target price on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. B. Riley lowered their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.15.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN stock traded down $1.76 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $53.17. 1,720,235 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,756,733. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $49.97. The firm has a market cap of $7.64 billion, a PE ratio of 50.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 3.88 and a quick ratio of 2.76. Ciena has a 1-year low of $39.94 and a 1-year high of $63.24.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the first quarter valued at $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the 1st quarter worth about $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 2nd quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its position in Ciena by 339.5% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 937 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by 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.