Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Rating Upgraded by Bank of America

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) was upgraded by investment analysts at Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The firm currently has a $95.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock, up from their previous target price of $70.00. Bank of America‘s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 12.45% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.92.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $84.48 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. Ciena has a 52 week low of $42.20 and a 52 week high of $89.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 89.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $68.45 and a 200-day moving average of $57.52.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,552,877.04. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Ciena by 3.8% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Ciena by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of Ciena by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its position in shares of Ciena by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $380,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Company Profile

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.