Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target Lowered to $76.00 at Morgan Stanley

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price objective reduced by Morgan Stanley from $80.00 to $76.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 21.99% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their target price on shares of Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their target price on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.38.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $62.30 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.88 billion, a PE ratio of 109.30, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. Ciena has a twelve month low of $43.30 and a twelve month high of $101.44. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $83.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $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 (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at $17,194,102.73. The trade was a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total transaction of $1,137,776.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,618,161.34. This trade represents a 3.10 % 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 valued at $5,337,764 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th 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 during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake 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. boosted its stake in Ciena by 73.7% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the period. Finally, Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Ciena by 77.2% during the 4th quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.