Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Has Average Price Target of $492.68 According to Analysts

Shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $492.68.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Ciena from $635.00 to $605.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 4th. Northland Securities set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Barclays boosted their target price on Ciena from $475.00 to $548.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Morgan Stanley reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 9th.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $358.44 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $376.10 and its 200 day moving average is $439.63. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $133.67 and a fifty-two week high of $637.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $50.83 billion, a PE ratio of 80.01, a PEG ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 3.17 and a current ratio of 3.80.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 3rd. The communications equipment provider reported $2.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by $0.38. Ciena had a return on equity of 25.33% and a net margin of 10.87%.The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue was up 37.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Marc D. Graff sold 4,995 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $430.72, for a total value of $2,151,446.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 107,519 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,310,583.68. This represents a 4.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Gary Smith sold 2,952 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.18, for a total transaction of $974,691.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 240,126 shares in the company, valued at $79,284,802.68. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their position. 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 ninety days, insiders have sold 23,710 shares of company stock worth $9,698,663. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in Ciena by 30,114.5% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,870,677 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $671,365,000 after purchasing an additional 2,861,176 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 95.6% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,236,835 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $523,129,000 after buying an additional 1,092,980 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at about $404,948,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $189,891,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of Ciena by 86.4% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 510,449 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $119,379,000 after buying an additional 236,568 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Company Profile

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a networking technology company that provides hardware, software and services for communications networks. Its solutions help service providers, cloud companies, enterprises and government organizations build, manage and automate high-capacity networks that support broadband, cloud computing, data center interconnection and other digital services.

The company’s product portfolio includes optical networking systems, coherent optical technology, routers, switches, network control and automation software, and network management tools.