Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Downgraded by Evercore ISI to “In-Line”

Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) from an outperform rating to an in-line rating in a research report report published on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat reports. Evercore ISI currently has $65.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on CIEN. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays boosted their target price on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $63.08.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN stock opened at $65.32 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $58.71 and a 200-day moving average of $51.65. 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 12 month low of $39.94 and a 12 month high of $69.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. 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 worth $568,123 over the last three months. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.