Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) and Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Critical Survey

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) and Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) are both large-cap technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, valuation, profitability, risk and institutional ownership.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.0% of Ciena shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.2% of Motorola Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Ciena shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Motorola Solutions shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Ciena and Motorola Solutions, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ciena	0	5	14	1	2.80
Motorola Solutions	0	1	11	1	3.00

Ciena presently has a consensus target price of $492.68, indicating a potential upside of 41.25%. Motorola Solutions has a consensus target price of $519.56, indicating a potential upside of 15.56%. Given Ciena’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Ciena is more favorable than Motorola Solutions.

Profitability

This table compares Ciena and Motorola Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ciena	10.87%	25.33%	11.27%
Motorola Solutions	17.44%	98.22%	12.87%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ciena and Motorola Solutions”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ciena	$4.77 billion	10.37	$123.34 million	$4.48	77.86
Motorola Solutions	$11.68 billion	6.37	$2.15 billion	$12.70	35.40

Motorola Solutions has higher revenue and earnings than Ciena. Motorola Solutions is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ciena, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Ciena has a beta of 1.3, meaning that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Motorola Solutions has a beta of 0.88, meaning that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Motorola Solutions beats Ciena on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. Its products include 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, Waveserver stackable interconnect system, and the 6500 Reconfigurable line system, and the 5400 family of Packet-Optical platforms, as well as 8100 coherent routing platforms; 3000 family of service delivery switches and the 5000 family of service aggregation switches, as well as 8700 Packetwave Platform and 6500 Packet Transport System. This segment also sells operating system software and enhanced software features embedded in each of its products. The company’s Blue Planet Automation Software and Services segment provides multi-domain service orchestration, inventory, route optimization and analysis, multi-cloud orchestration, and unified assurance and analytics services. Its Platform Software and Service segment offers MCP domain controller solution, and OneControl unified management system, as well as planning tools. The company’s Global Services segment provides maintenance support and training, installation and deployment, and consulting and network design services. Ciena Corporation was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Hanover, Maryland.

About Motorola Solutions

Motorola Solutions, Inc. provides public safety and enterprise security solutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Products and Systems Integration, and Software and Services. The Products and Systems Integration segment offers a portfolio of infrastructure, devices, accessories, and video security devices and infrastructure, as well as the implementation and integration of systems, devices, software, and applications for government, public safety, and commercial customers who operate private communications networks and video security solutions, as well as manage a mobile workforce. Its land mobile radio communications, and video security and access control devices include two-way portable and vehicle-mounted radios, fixed video cameras, and accessories; communications network core and central processing software, base stations, consoles, and repeaters; and video analytics, network video management hardware and software, and access control solutions. The Software and Services segment provides public safety and enterprise command center, unified communications applications, mobile video equipment, and video software solutions; repair, technical support, and maintenance services; and monitoring, software updates, and cybersecurity services to government, public safety, and commercial communications networks. It serves hospitality; manufacturing; military and defence; public safety; mining; oil and gas; transportation and logistics; utilities industries. The company was formerly known as Motorola, Inc. and changed its name to Motorola Solutions, Inc. in January 2011. Motorola Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1928 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.