Ciena Corporation (CIEN) is a Maryland based telecommunications equipment and service provider, focused primarily on providing networking solutions to various large scale business enterprises. At the time of this post (11:25AM CST), CIEN is currently trading down 2.1% to 17.22 on the day. CIEN stock is currently trading in the bottom portion of its 52 week range of 13.77-27.16 after holding and bouncing off of the yearly lows that printed in mid-October. CIEN has remained in a downtrend for much of the calendar year after briefly piercing the 52 week highs following the company’s Q1 earnings report in early March of this year. In the near term (over the last two months) CIEN share prices have momentarily stabilized, and the stock looks to break upward consolidation and continue a strong bounce going into the fourth quarter earnings release on 12/11/2014 in the premarket.
Over the last eight quarters of earnings releases, CIEN has traded with mixed to bullish results, moving higher on five out of eight sessions immediately following the EPS release. CIEN has been a volatile post-earnings mover during this time period, posting an average historical move of 11.1%. Currently the options market is pricing in a move that would be right in line with this expectation, as the $1.90 expected move in the underlying stock by this Friday’s expiration would represent a directional move of 11.01%. Despite the technical downtrend for most of the year in CIEN, the stock has recently begun to consolidate bullishly and break out of the Ichimoku Cloud on the daily chart. This recent stabilization and uptrend in share prices, combined with the historical proclivity of CIEN to trade bullishly following its earnings releases has me leaning bullish this name going into earnings. I will be looking to establish a long position in CIEN before today’s close.