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Ciena (CIEN) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Ciena (CIEN - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $43.68, moving +0.25% from the previous trading session. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.12% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.23%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.36%.

Heading into today, shares of the developer of high-speed networking technology had gained 10.33% over the past month, outpacing the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 8.83% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.17% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from CIEN as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be March 5, 2019. In that report, analysts expect CIEN to post earnings of $0.30 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 100%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $757.37 million, up 17.21% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $1.77 per share and revenue of $3.33 billion. These totals would mark changes of +27.34% and +7.6%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for CIEN. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. CIEN is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Looking at its valuation, CIEN is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 24.65. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 24.9, which means CIEN is trading at a discount to the group.

Investors should also note that CIEN has a PEG ratio of 1.59 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Fiber Optics was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.84 at yesterday's closing price.

The Fiber Optics industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 16, which puts it in the top 7% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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