The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 0.02% to 14.14 million shares with purchase of 2927.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 9.48% valued currently at $651.08 million. In addition, SSgA Funds Management, Inc. raised its holdings by 84294.0 to 4.23 million shares. And Neuberger Berman Investment Advis has lifted its position by 8.52% or 0.29 million shares – to 3.74 million shares.
With over 1.36 million Ciena Corporation (CIEN) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $45.58 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $61.99 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 4.23% and its price on 05/22/23 gained nearly 1.47%. Currently, there are 149.08M common shares owned by the public and among those 146.89M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 16 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for CIEN have a consensus price objective of $63.39. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $74.00 and a low of $45.00. The average price target is 27.79% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -1.29% over that period. But an upside of 38.41% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $65.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 269 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 35 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 485,450 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 234 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 388,961 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Ciena Corporation are iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF, Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, and Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund. iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF owns 4.63 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $213.23 million. The company bought an additional 16544.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.11% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF bought 60170.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 4.62 million shares valued at over $212.49 million and representing 3.09% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund bought 41916.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 3.9 million shares at a value of $179.69 million. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.62% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) opened at $44.94, up $0.02 from a prior closing price of $44.92. However, the script later moved the day high at 45.82, up 1.47%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 2.61% and -4.48% over the past three months. CIEN shares are trading -10.59% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -8.51% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $38.33 and touched a high of $56.38 over the same period. CIEN has an average intraday trading volume of 1.75 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 2.32%, -4.91%, and -4.02% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) shares accounts for 99.90% of the company’s 149.08M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 41.31%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 52.92% and 2.38% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $6.76B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.01. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 37.36, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $1.22. The company has a PEG of 5.26 and a Quick Ratio of 2.50 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.55. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.05% over the week and 2.02% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation (CIEN) will achieve an EPS of $0.61 for the current quarter, $0.71 for the next quarter and $3.63 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.53 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.7. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.52 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -68.50%, and 28.35% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 7.10% over the next five years, compared to 4.50% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 16 brokerage firm advisors rate Ciena Corporation (CIEN) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.00. Specifically, 10 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 5 of the 16 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
