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

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) was down 8.3% during mid-day 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. Approximately 1,445,920 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 24% from the average daily volume of 1,906,783 shares. The stock had previously closed at $66.40.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on CIEN. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their target price on Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was 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 represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value 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 $5,042,121.12. This represents a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock worth $5,337,764. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC bought a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at $106,000. Forum Financial Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at $259,000. Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth about $42,000. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter worth about $216,000. Finally, Delta Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at about $254,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $8.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 108.08, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $83.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $73.22.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its 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 firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

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.