Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Gap Up on Strong Earnings

Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The stock had previously closed at $55.35, but opened at $58.20. Ciena shares last traded at $54.92, with a volume of 1,346,592 shares trading hands.

The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 7.16%. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.36 earnings per share.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Raymond James downgraded shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $59.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Ciena from $52.50 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. B. Riley dropped their price target on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Ciena from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ciena during the first quarter worth approximately $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena in the first quarter worth approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena in the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in Ciena by 339.5% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Trading Up 0.4 %

The company has a current ratio of 3.88, a quick ratio of 2.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a market capitalization of $7.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.19, a PEG ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $50.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $49.94.

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.