Wall Street Zen Upgrades Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) to Buy

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Saturday.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $76.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $65.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Ciena from $98.00 to $75.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. B. Riley reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $90.00 target price (up previously from $89.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Barclays set a $100.00 target price on shares of Ciena and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $84.31.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CIEN traded up $1.86 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $81.38. 1,082,538 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,116,061. Ciena has a 52 week low of $44.89 and a 52 week high of $101.44. The company has a quick ratio of 2.57, a current ratio of 3.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.50 billion, a PE ratio of 113.03, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.11. The company's 50 day moving average price is $77.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $76.19.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates 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 prior year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 23.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,325 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.50, for a total value of $187,162.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 84,833 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,829,056.50. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.60, for a total transaction of $25,410.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 45,883 shares in the company, valued at $3,331,105.80. The trade was a 0.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 41,919 shares of company stock valued at $3,115,199. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,459 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $887,000 after buying an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 643.1% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,192 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $186,000 after buying an additional 1,897 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 959,831 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $81,403,000 after buying an additional 4,315 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 28.7% in the fourth quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 41,557 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $3,524,000 after buying an additional 9,274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 8,400 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $712,000 after purchasing an additional 412 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company's stock.

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.