Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $398.8333.

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CIEN. Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $430.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $380.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Evercore set a $330.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $355.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th.

Ciena Trading Up 3.2%

CIEN stock opened at $541.52 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $463.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $320.95. The company has a quick ratio of 2.14, a current ratio of 2.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Ciena has a 52-week low of $70.77 and a 52-week high of $598.84. The firm has a market cap of $76.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 344.92, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.18. Ciena had a net margin of 4.47% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.64 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ciena will post 5.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.51, for a total value of $1,226,585.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 281,365 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $116,909,971.15. This trade represents a 1.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 22,014 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.80, for a total transaction of $9,021,337.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 68 shares in the company, valued at $27,866.40. This represents a 99.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 44,174 shares of company stock valued at $18,878,661. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,747,810,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Ciena by 30,114.5% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,870,677 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $671,365,000 after buying an additional 2,861,176 shares in the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC purchased a new position in Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $292,310,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Ciena by 53.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,051,625 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $947,554,000 after buying an additional 1,404,132 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atreides Management LP purchased a new position in Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at about $102,705,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Company Profile

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena’s product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.