Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Board Initiates Share Buyback Plan

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $66.69 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $54.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $50.38. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena has a 12-month low of $39.94 and a 12-month high of $66.78.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. Ciena’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.36 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CIEN. Barclays increased their price objective on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. B. Riley cut their price target on Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. This represents a 0.00 % 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 Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $502,953 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.83% 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.