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

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its target price cut by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $80.00 to $76.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 18.98% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.23.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $63.88 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.07, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $83.48 and a 200 day moving average of $73.27. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena has a twelve month low of $43.30 and a twelve month high of $101.44.

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). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,435,197.48. This represents a 5.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 63,442 shares of company stock worth $5,337,764 in the last three months. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at about $106,000. Forum Financial Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $259,000. Orion Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $216,000. Finally, Delta Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter worth $254,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.