Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $530.5556.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CIEN. Evercore set a $330.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Zacks Research cut Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. TD Cowen raised their target price on Ciena from $425.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. B. Riley Financial lifted their price target on Ciena from $283.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $380.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $428.02 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $521.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $371.61. Ciena has a one year low of $73.55 and a one year high of $637.51. The firm has a market cap of $60.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 142.67 and a beta of 1.24. 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 quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 18.15% and a net margin of 7.87%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.42 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Ciena will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 22,014 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.80, for a total value of $9,021,337.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 68 shares in the company, valued at $27,866.40. This represents a 99.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 5,000 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $405.00, for a total transaction of $2,025,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 46,341 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,768,105. This represents a 9.74% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 45,374 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,470. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,747,810,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 30,114.5% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,870,677 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $671,365,000 after buying an additional 2,861,176 shares during the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth about $292,310,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Ciena by 53.0% during 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 buying an additional 1,404,132 shares during the period. Finally, Atreides Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at about $102,705,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Company Profile

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.