Citigroup Boosts Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target to $98.00

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price objective increased by stock analysts at Citigroup from $84.00 to $98.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 10.00% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Northland Securities raised their price target on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN stock traded up $4.57 on Friday, reaching $89.09. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,274,578 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,842,359. The company has a market capitalization of $12.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 94.89, a PEG ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. Ciena has a 12-month low of $42.20 and a 12-month high of $91.25. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $68.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.52. 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 (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly 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). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The business’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after buying an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 119.9% during the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $260,054,000 after purchasing an additional 2,943,146 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $273,427,000 after purchasing an additional 53,078 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 24.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $130,392,000 after purchasing an additional 523,313 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $148,348,000 after purchasing an additional 33,074 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is 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.