Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Rating Lowered to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) was downgraded by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report issued on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. They presently have a $63.00 price objective on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential downside of 3.49% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays upped their target price on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $65.28 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $9.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.77, a P/E/G ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.60. Ciena has a 1-year low of $40.46 and a 1-year high of $69.91.

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

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 119.9% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $260,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,943,146 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Ciena by 24.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $130,392,000 after purchasing an additional 523,313 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Ciena by 1,944.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $101,986,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961,513 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Ciena by 17.2% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,464 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $98,743,000 after purchasing an additional 301,390 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Ciena by 7,767.2% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $94,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941,419 shares in the last quarter. 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.