Rosenblatt Securities Boosts Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target to $94.00

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

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on CIEN. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Northland Securities raised their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $75.92.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of Ciena stock traded up $4.63 on Friday, reaching $89.15. The stock had a trading volume of 1,405,029 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,824,276. The business’s 50 day moving average is $68.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.52. The company has a market cap of $12.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 94.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. Ciena has a 1 year low of $42.20 and a 1 year high of $89.56. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

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

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available 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 shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the second quarter worth $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 118.9% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 854 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.