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

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)’s share price fell 8.3% during trading 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 changed 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 research firms have also recently commented on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.38.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. The trade was a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 5,648 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total transaction of $478,046.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 109,878 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,300,073.92. This represents a 4.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $148,348,000 after acquiring an additional 33,074 shares during the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new stake in Ciena in the fourth quarter worth $245,000. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in Ciena by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,459 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $887,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Ciena in the fourth quarter worth $421,000. Finally, Atria Investments Inc bought a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter worth $1,988,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Price Performance

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

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

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.