Stock Buyback Program Authorized by Ciena (NYSE:CIEN)

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

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $65.24 on Friday. Ciena has a 1-year low of $39.94 and a 1-year high of $66.35. The company has a market capitalization of $9.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $54.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $50.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.36 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.00.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the firm’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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $502,953. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.