Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Hits New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $194.41 and last traded at $190.1850, with a volume of 88730 shares. The stock had previously closed at $189.92.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Zacks Research upgraded Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $127.50 to $175.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Ciena from $105.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. BNP Paribas set a $185.00 price objective on Ciena and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Ciena from $78.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $137.53.

Ciena Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $27.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 201.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.15. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $147.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $104.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a current ratio of 3.28.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $844.44 million for the quarter. Ciena had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 3.10%. On average, research analysts expect that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.36, for a total transaction of $59,276.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 40,653 shares in the company, valued at $6,884,992.08. This represents a 0.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total value of $1,185,555.32. Following the sale, the director owned 54,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,653,914.88. This trade represents a 13.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 45,374 shares of company stock valued at $5,936,444 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Quent Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. Root Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $45,000. Finally, Cloud Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $55,000. 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.