Brokerages Set Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) PT at $77.00

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $77.00.

CIEN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th.

Ciena Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of CIEN opened at $82.22 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $76.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $62.83. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $11.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.47, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $91.82.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during 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 company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. The trade was a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total value of $1,137,776.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. The trade was a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 47,131 shares of company stock valued at $3,924,465. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Ciena by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in Ciena by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $635,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.