Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target Lowered to $90.00 at Needham & Company LLC

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its target price reduced by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC from $95.00 to $90.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target points to a potential upside of 44.46% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Northland Securities upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.38.

Ciena Stock Down 6.2 %

CIEN opened at $62.30 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $83.11 and a 200 day moving average of $73.22. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena has a 12 month low of $43.30 and a 12 month high of $101.44. The company has a market cap of $8.88 billion, a PE ratio of 109.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,256,582.77. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total value of $519,588.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 398,549 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,453,129.09. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 63,442 shares of company stock worth $5,337,764 in the last 90 days. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 108.6% during the fourth quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 290 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Ciena by 925.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Ciena by 328.2% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in Ciena by 73.7% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 77.2% in the 4th quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.