Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target Increased to $63.00 by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price target lifted by Morgan Stanley from $60.00 to $63.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently commented on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Ciena from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and upped their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Northland Securities restated a market perform rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Bank of America restated a neutral rating and issued a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $62.92.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $68.47 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.89 billion, a PE ratio of 72.84, a PEG ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s 50-day moving average is $56.80 and its 200-day moving average is $51.08. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $39.94 and a fifty-two week high of $69.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.36 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $502,953. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 1,171.4% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 44,854 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,161,000 after buying an additional 41,326 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $661,000. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $5,039,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,499,035 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $72,223,000 after purchasing an additional 181,358 shares during the period. Finally, Deepwater Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,587,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.