Morgan Stanley Downgrades Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) to Equal Weight

Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report released on Monday, Marketbeat reports. Morgan Stanley currently has $63.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Barclays raised their price objective on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

Ciena Stock Down 1.7 %

Ciena stock opened at $63.54 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena has a 1-year low of $41.37 and a 1-year high of $69.91. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $60.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.76. The company has a market cap of $9.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 67.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 2.4% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 5.4% during the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $380,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new stake in Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.