JPMorgan Chase & Co. Upgrades Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) to Overweight

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) was upgraded by research analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday,Finviz reports. The brokerage currently has a $88.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $84.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price target would suggest a potential upside of 15.39% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the company. Barclays boosted their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Northland Securities increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.77.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $76.27 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $80.84 and a 200-day moving average of $66.38. The stock has a market cap of $10.84 billion, a PE ratio of 133.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $43.30 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced 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 company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena 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. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. This represents a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,781 shares of company stock valued at $4,298,500 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 925.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the period. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new position in Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter worth $59,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by 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.