Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Upgraded at Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) from a sell rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Citigroup currently has $68.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $44.00.

CIEN has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Raymond James lowered Ciena from a strong-buy rating to an outperform rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Bank of America restated a neutral rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a market perform rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $61.00.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $62.46 on Monday. Ciena has a 12 month low of $39.94 and a 12 month high of $63.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $53.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $49.96. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market cap of $9.02 billion, a PE ratio of 60.06, a P/E/G ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.36 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at $4,635,840. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,368,269.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 9,712 shares of company stock worth $498,637. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the 2nd quarter worth $221,000. LHM Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 64.0% in the 2nd quarter. LHM Inc. now owns 83,725 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,034,000 after purchasing an additional 32,668 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 10.4% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 29,614 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,427,000 after purchasing an additional 2,800 shares during the period. Quarry LP raised its holdings in Ciena by 118.9% in the 2nd 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 period. Finally, Creative Planning lifted its position in Ciena by 13.7% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 8,799 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $424,000 after buying an additional 1,062 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently 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.