Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the fourteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $81.38.

A number of research firms have commented on CIEN. Northland Securities upgraded shares of Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $60.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Northland Capmk raised Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective on Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC decreased their target price on Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 12th.

Ciena Stock Performance

Ciena stock opened at $65.58 on Friday. Ciena has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $80.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $73.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 115.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total transaction of $235,050.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,435,197.48. The trade was a 5.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,742 shares of company stock worth $5,469,173 in the last quarter. 0.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,316,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,299,004,000 after purchasing an additional 139,941 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,236,920 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $444,143,000 after buying an additional 17,447 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 195.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $392,345,000 after buying an additional 3,062,883 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Ciena by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,427,000 after buying an additional 53,078 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.