Morgan Stanley Has Lowered Expectations for Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Price

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price objective decreased by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $80.00 to $76.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price points to a potential upside of 21.99% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on CIEN. Northland Securities raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. 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. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their price target on shares of Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.38.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $62.30 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $8.88 billion, a PE ratio of 109.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. Ciena has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $83.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $73.22.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 398,549 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,453,129.09. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Atria Investments Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at about $1,988,000. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Ciena by 97.5% in the third quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now owns 46,584 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,869,000 after purchasing an additional 23,000 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at about $1,337,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 826.1% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 98,600 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,073,000 after purchasing an additional 87,953 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its position in shares of Ciena by 1.0% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 50,161 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,089,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the period. 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.