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

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price target trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $80.00 to $76.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Barclays raised 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. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Northland Securities raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.38.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $63.84 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $9.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. 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 has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $101.44. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $82.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $73.19.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total value of $519,588.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 398,549 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,453,129.09. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at $4,256,582.77. This represents a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after acquiring an additional 108,407 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ciena by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,316,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,299,004,000 after buying an additional 139,941 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its stake in Ciena by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,236,920 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $444,143,000 after buying an additional 17,447 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Ciena by 195.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $392,345,000 after buying an additional 3,062,883 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,427,000 after purchasing an additional 53,078 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.