Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Sets New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $70.15 and last traded at $69.99, with a volume of 454350 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $68.50.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on CIEN shares. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

Ciena Trading Up 2.3 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. The stock has a market cap of $10.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 76.48, a P/E/G ratio of 5.14 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $62.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $53.72.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.36 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,552,877.04. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123 in the last three months. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after buying an additional 239 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of Ciena by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $635,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its position in shares of Ciena by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $380,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.