Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Sets New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $219.49 and last traded at $215.3050, with a volume of 994261 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $212.93.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup raised their price target on Ciena from $141.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Zacks Research cut Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 24th. Argus upped their target price on Ciena from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $140.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $168.73.

Ciena Trading Up 3.6%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 3.28 and a quick ratio of 2.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 228.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.17. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $185.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $126.74.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter. Ciena had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 3.10%.The business had revenue of $844.44 million during the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.61, for a total transaction of $1,309,748.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 254,870 shares in the company, valued at $49,090,510.70. The trade was a 2.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,863 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.14, for a total transaction of $262,943.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 43,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,143,965.34. The trade was a 4.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 51,935 shares of company stock worth $8,707,266. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,088,445 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,227,143,000 after buying an additional 103,199 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Ciena by 23.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,462,840 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $941,451,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,787 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in Ciena by 10.4% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,495,795 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $284,313,000 after purchasing an additional 329,821 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 35.0% during the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,708,540 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $220,286,000 after purchasing an additional 702,909 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $292,310,000. Hedge funds and other 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.