Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Rating Upgraded by Bank of America

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) was upgraded by research analysts at Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Friday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The firm presently has a $95.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock, up from their previous target price of $70.00. Bank of America‘s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 12.45% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on CIEN. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.92.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN stock opened at $84.48 on Friday. Ciena has a 12 month low of $42.20 and a 12 month high of $89.25. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $68.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.52. The stock has a market cap of $12.20 billion, a PE ratio of 89.87, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 1.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 in the company, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Ciena by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 119.9% in the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $260,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,943,146 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,427,000 after acquiring an additional 53,078 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 24.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $130,392,000 after acquiring an additional 523,313 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Ciena by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $148,348,000 after buying an additional 33,074 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.