Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Wolfe Research

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) was upgraded by analysts at Wolfe Research to a "strong-buy" rating in a report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on CIEN. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. B. Riley reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $90.00 target price (up previously from $89.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. Evercore ISI reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an "underweight" rating and issued a $70.00 target price (down previously from $73.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $84.08.

Ciena Stock Down 0.6%

NYSE:CIEN traded down $0.46 on Tuesday, reaching $77.99. The stock had a trading volume of 1,638,172 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,134,761. The company has a current ratio of 3.40, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a 50-day moving average of $78.03 and a 200 day moving average of $75.93. The stock has a market cap of $11.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 108.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.11. Ciena has a 12-month low of $44.89 and a 12-month high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.08). Ciena had a return on equity of 5.08% and a net margin of 2.46%. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.27 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 23.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 2,044 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.64, for a total value of $166,872.16. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 47,198 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,853,244.72. This trade represents a 4.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.93, for a total transaction of $199,825.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 202,370 shares in the company, valued at $16,175,434.10. This represents a 1.22% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,919 shares of company stock valued at $3,115,199 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.93% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 108.6% during the fourth quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 290 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 328.2% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 279 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 73.7% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 77.2% during the fourth quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd boosted its holdings in Ciena by 34.7% during the first quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 636 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.