Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

by · The Cerbat Gem

Shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN – Get Free Report) gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $221.85, but opened at $236.35. Ciena shares last traded at $231.3330, with a volume of 3,246,580 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $130.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Argus raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Ciena from $141.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Ciena from $120.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, BNP Paribas set a $185.00 target price on Ciena and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $168.73.

View Our Latest Research Report on CIEN

Ciena Stock Up 7.6%

The company has a market capitalization of $33.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 245.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a current ratio of 3.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $185.29 and its 200-day moving average is $126.74.

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

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total transaction of $1,185,555.32. Following the sale, the director directly owned 54,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,653,914.88. The trade was a 13.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.61, for a total transaction of $1,309,748.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 254,870 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,090,510.70. The trade was a 2.60% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 51,935 shares of company stock valued at $8,707,266 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,088,445 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,227,143,000 after acquiring an additional 103,199 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Ciena by 23.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,462,840 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $941,451,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,787 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Ciena by 10.4% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,495,795 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $284,313,000 after purchasing an additional 329,821 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 35.0% during the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,708,540 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $220,286,000 after purchasing an additional 702,909 shares during the period. Finally, Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth about $292,310,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Ciena

(Get Free Report)

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.

See Also