Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Cut to “Hold” at Zacks Research

by · The Cerbat Gem

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN – Get Free Report) was downgraded by Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

CIEN has been the subject of several other research reports. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $127.50 to $175.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. BNP Paribas set a $185.00 price target on Ciena and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ciena in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $102.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $78.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $153.20.

Get Our Latest Analysis on Ciena

Ciena Stock Up 0.7%

CIEN stock opened at $196.05 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $27.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 202.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 3.28, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $171.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $117.45. Ciena has a 1-year low of $49.21 and a 1-year high of $214.17.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total value of $1,185,555.32. Following the sale, the director directly owned 54,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,653,914.88. This represents a 13.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,863 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.14, for a total transaction of $262,943.82. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 43,531 shares in the company, valued at $6,143,965.34. This trade represents a 4.10% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 51,935 shares of company stock valued at $8,029,442. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 0.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 103,199 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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 worth $941,451,000 after buying an additional 1,219,787 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted 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 worth $284,313,000 after buying an additional 329,821 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its stake 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 worth $220,286,000 after acquiring an additional 702,909 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $292,310,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.

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