Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Gap Down After Earnings Miss

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday following a weaker than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $83.89, but opened at $76.85. Ciena shares last traded at $72.52, with a volume of 3,508,713 shares trading hands.

The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.08). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $44.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Evercore ISI reiterated a “mixed” rating on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday. Northland Capmk raised shares of Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Ciena from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $65.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $83.15.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.54, for a total transaction of $404,872.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 375,680 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,367,987.20. This represents a 1.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 18,888 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.88, for a total transaction of $1,131,013.44. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 89,258 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,344,769.04. The trade was a 17.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 51,788 shares of company stock worth $3,431,319. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 195.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $392,345,000 after purchasing an additional 3,062,883 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the first quarter valued at about $70,065,000. Polar Capital Holdings Plc lifted its stake in Ciena by 113.7% in the fourth quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 2,169,406 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $183,987,000 after buying an additional 1,154,260 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in Ciena by 4,215.9% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 899,828 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $76,314,000 after buying an additional 878,979 shares during the period. Finally, Woodline Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $49,221,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Down 0.2%

The firm has a market capitalization of $10.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 127.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.12. The business’s 50-day moving average is $70.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $75.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55.

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.