Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Raised to “Outperform” at Northland Securities

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) was upgraded by equities researchers at Northland Securities from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note issued on Wednesday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage currently has a $75.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Northland Securities’ target price would suggest a potential upside of 17.41% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on CIEN. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their price objective on Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Barclays raised their price target on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.38.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN opened at $63.88 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 112.07, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $83.48 and a 200-day moving average price of $73.27. Ciena has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 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 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The firm’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.16, for a total value of $31,556.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,435,601.52. The trade was a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total value of $519,588.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 398,549 shares in the company, valued at $30,453,129.09. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 108.6% in the fourth quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 290 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 73.7% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Ciena by 328.2% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 279 shares during the period. Finally, Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in Ciena by 77.2% during the fourth quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.