B. Riley Financial Cuts Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target to $413.00

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price objective lowered by investment analysts at B. Riley Financial from $516.00 to $413.00 in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. B. Riley Financial’s price target indicates a potential upside of 9.45% from the company’s current price.

CIEN has been the subject of several other reports. Zacks Research cut shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Argus set a $650.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 5th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Ciena from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on Ciena from $320.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Ciena from $345.00 to $658.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $521.22.

Ciena Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of Ciena stock traded down $1.11 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $377.33. The company had a trading volume of 426,939 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,861,669. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $415.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $436.57. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $90.00 and a fifty-two week high of $637.51. The firm has a market cap of $53.41 billion, a PE ratio of 125.78 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.11.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.18. Ciena had a net margin of 7.87% and a return on equity of 18.15%. The business had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, CFO Marc D. Graff sold 4,995 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $430.72, for a total value of $2,151,446.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 107,519 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,310,583.68. This trade represents a 4.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,629 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.20, for a total transaction of $1,225,639.80. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 62,382 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,082,488.40. This trade represents a 4.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 22,470 shares of company stock valued at $9,967,521 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its holdings in Ciena by 49,854.1% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 104,748,296 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $51,385,324,000 after acquiring an additional 104,538,607 shares in the last quarter. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,747,810,000. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Ciena by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,102,409 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,193,300,000 after purchasing an additional 750,128 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 53.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,051,625 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $947,554,000 after purchasing an additional 1,404,132 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 10.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,495,795 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $284,313,000 after purchasing an additional 329,821 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena’s product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.