Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target Lowered to $76.00 at Morgan Stanley

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) had its price target reduced by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $80.00 to $76.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "equal weight" rating on the communications equipment provider's stock. Morgan Stanley's price target would indicate a potential upside of 21.99% from the company's previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. 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 report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays upped their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $81.38.

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Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE CIEN traded down $4.10 on Wednesday, hitting $62.30. 2,964,283 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,908,983. 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. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $83.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $73.22. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $43.30 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The company's revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total value of $235,050.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,607 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,435,197.48. This represents a 5.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total value of $519,588.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 398,549 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,453,129.09. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Ciena by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $148,348,000 after purchasing an additional 33,074 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter worth approximately $245,000. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,459 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $887,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at $421,000. Finally, Atria Investments Inc bought a new position in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,988,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company's stock.

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.