Ubiquiti (NYSE:UI) vs. Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Head to Head Analysis

Ubiquiti (NYSE:UI) and Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) are both large-cap technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Ubiquiti and Ciena’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ubiquiti	29.33%	85.57%	54.75%
Ciena	10.87%	25.33%	11.27%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ubiquiti and Ciena”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ubiquiti	$3.27 billion	9.96	$960.30 million	$15.85	34.01
Ciena	$6.02 billion	6.69	$123.34 million	$4.48	63.41

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

4.0% of Ubiquiti shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.0% of Ciena shares are owned by institutional investors. 93.0% of Ubiquiti shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Ciena shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Ubiquiti and Ciena, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ubiquiti	1	1	1	1	2.50
Ciena	0	6	15	1	2.77

Ubiquiti presently has a consensus price target of $734.50, suggesting a potential upside of 36.24%. Ciena has a consensus price target of $485.93, suggesting a potential upside of 71.05%. Given Ciena’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Ciena is more favorable than Ubiquiti.

Volatility and Risk

Ubiquiti has a beta of 1.3, suggesting that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ciena has a beta of 1.28, suggesting that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

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

About Ubiquiti

Ubiquiti Inc. develops networking technology for service providers, enterprises, and consumers. The company develops technology platforms for high-capacity distributed Internet access, unified information technology, and consumer electronics for professional, home, and personal use. Its service provider product platforms offer carrier-class network infrastructure for fixed wireless broadband, wireless backhaul systems, and routing and related software; and enterprise product platforms provide wireless LAN infrastructure, video surveillance products, switching and routing solutions, security gateways, door access systems, and other WLAN products. The company also provides technology platforms, such as airMAX, which include proprietary protocols that contain technologies for minimizing signal noise; EdgeMAX, a software and system routing platform; airFiber, a wireless backhaul point-to-point radio system; and UFiber GPON, a plug and play fiber network technology to build high speed fiber internet networks. In addition, it offers UniFi Gateway Console, an enterprise class router and security gateway device; UniFi Wi-Fi, an enterprise Wi-Fi system; UniFi Protect, a video surveillance system, which provides statistical reporting and advanced analytics; UniFi Switch that deliver performance, switching, and power of ethernet support for enterprise networks; UniFi Access, a door access system; and UniFi Talk, a plug-and-play phone system and VoIP subscription service. Further, the company provides base stations, radios, backhaul equipment, and customer premise equipment; embedded radio products; and antennas. It serves customers through a network of distributors, online retailers, and direct to customers worldwide. The company was formerly known as Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. and changed its name to Ubiquiti Inc. in August 2019. Ubiquiti Inc. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

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.