Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Down 8.3% on Analyst Downgrade

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) traded down 8.3% on Thursday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $80.00 to $76.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Ciena traded as low as $61.16 and last traded at $60.87. 1,445,920 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 24% from the average session volume of 1,906,783 shares. The stock had previously closed at $66.40.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Northland Securities upped their target price on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays upped their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup increased their price target on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total transaction of $519,588.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 398,549 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,453,129.09. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. The trade was a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

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

Ciena Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $9.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 112.00, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company’s 50-day moving average is $82.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $73.19.

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

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.