Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Price Down 8.3% Following Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) traded down 8.3% 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. 1,445,920 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 24% from the average session volume of 1,906,783 shares. The stock had previously closed at $66.40.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays upped 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. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded 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 research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,256,582.77. This represents a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares in the company, 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. Insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock worth $5,337,764 over the last ninety days. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Atria Investments Inc bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the third quarter worth $1,988,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,337,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Ciena by 826.1% during the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 98,600 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $6,073,000 after buying an additional 87,953 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 50,161 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,089,000 after acquiring an additional 488 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,748,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Down 6.2 %

The business has a 50-day moving average of $83.11 and a 200-day moving average of $73.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The firm has a market cap of $8.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 109.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

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.