Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

CIEN has been the subject of several other research reports. Zacks Research downgraded Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Northland Securities set a $190.00 target price on Ciena and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI set a $240.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Ciena to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $236.38.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $218.82 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.09, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market cap of $30.87 billion, a PE ratio of 257.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.17. Ciena has a 12 month low of $49.21 and a 12 month high of $248.00. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $188.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $129.16.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.59% and a return on equity of 8.38%. The company’s revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.54 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total value of $1,185,555.32. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 54,624 shares in the company, valued at $7,653,914.88. This represents a 13.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.61, for a total transaction of $1,309,748.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 254,870 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,090,510.70. The trade was a 2.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 44,785 shares of company stock valued at $7,734,906. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 28.6% in the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 48,879 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,954,000 after purchasing an additional 10,856 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Ciena by 15.4% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,147 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the period. Prudential PLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 16.7% during the first quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 5,869 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $355,000 after buying an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 60.5% during the first quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 6,009 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $363,000 after buying an additional 2,266 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter worth about $816,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.