Brokerages Set Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) PT at $122.86

Shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nineteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eleven have given a buy recommendation and three have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $137.5333.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ciena from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $100.00 to $140.00 in a report on Friday. Wall Street Zen raised Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Ciena from $105.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Argus increased their target price on Ciena from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.00, for a total value of $46,200.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 42,918 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,665,176. This trade represents a 0.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total value of $631,924.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 305,157 shares in the company, valued at $28,358,240.01. This trade represents a 2.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 38,224 shares of company stock valued at $4,719,468. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Atreides Management LP purchased a new position in Ciena in the second quarter valued at about $102,705,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth about $70,065,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 3,577.9% during the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,032,393 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $83,965,000 after acquiring an additional 1,004,323 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 375.4% during the second quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,235,696 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $100,499,000 after acquiring an additional 975,792 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rokos Capital Management LLP increased its position in shares of Ciena by 546.9% during the second quarter. Rokos Capital Management LLP now owns 997,425 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $81,106,000 after acquiring an additional 843,235 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $164.98 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $23.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 170.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 3.28 and a quick ratio of 2.52. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $119.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $90.47. Ciena has a 1-year low of $49.21 and a 1-year high of $167.34.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter. Ciena had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 3.10%.The firm had revenue of $844.44 million for the quarter. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.