Rosenblatt Securities Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its target price raised by equities researchers at Rosenblatt Securities from $75.00 to $94.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Rosenblatt Securities’ price objective would indicate a potential upside of 5.44% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Morgan Stanley downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Ciena from $68.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.92.

Ciena Stock Performance

Ciena stock traded up $4.63 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $89.15. 1,405,029 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,824,276. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.88 billion, a PE ratio of 94.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. The business’s 50-day moving average is $68.45 and its 200-day moving average is $57.52. Ciena has a 12-month low of $42.20 and a 12-month high of $89.56.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 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 trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its position in shares of Ciena by 4.8% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 403,490 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $24,851,000 after acquiring an additional 18,426 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Ciena by 75.8% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 8,315 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $512,000 after acquiring an additional 3,584 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Ciena by 3.8% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $148,348,000 after purchasing an additional 33,074 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in Ciena by 68.5% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 7,988 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $492,000 after buying an additional 3,246 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.