Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Given New $135.00 Price Target at Bank of America

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its target price upped by Bank of America from $95.00 to $135.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 15.41% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday. B. Riley reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $113.00 target price (up from $90.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $83.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen lowered Ciena from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Finally, Northland Securities set a $100.00 price target on Ciena in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $101.58.

Ciena Stock Up 23.4%

Ciena stock opened at $116.97 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $16.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 162.46, a PEG ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 3.40, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $88.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $77.17. Ciena has a 52 week low of $49.21 and a 52 week high of $122.00.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.08% and a net margin of 2.46%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.27 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 2,044 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.64, for a total value of $166,872.16. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 47,198 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,853,244.72. The trade was a 4.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.50, for a total transaction of $187,162.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 84,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,829,056.50. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 39,769 shares of company stock worth $3,326,705. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Orion Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 534 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd raised its stake in Ciena by 34.7% during the 1st quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 636 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its stake in Ciena by 66.7% during the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in Ciena by 107.5% in the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 372 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.