Morgan Stanley Lowers Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) to Equal Weight

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) was downgraded by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating in a research report issued on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They presently have a $63.00 price objective on the communications equipment provider's stock. Morgan Stanley's price target points to a potential downside of 1.72% from the stock's current price.

CIEN has been the subject of several other reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $65.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Northland Securities restated a "market perform" rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $63.08.

Ciena Stock Down 0.0 %

NYSE CIEN traded down $0.02 during trading on Monday, hitting $64.11. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,861,859 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,819,069. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $40.46 and a fifty-two week high of $69.91. The company has a market cap of $9.21 billion, a PE ratio of 61.65, 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 business's 50 day simple moving average is $60.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $52.34.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. On average, 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 share buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $568,123. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Ciena in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in 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 last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter worth approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its position in Ciena by 339.5% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 937 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.