Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Receives “Underweight” Rating from Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley reiterated their underweight rating on shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) in a report released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. Morgan Stanley currently has a $70.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock, down from their prior target price of $73.00.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price target (up from $89.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $65.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $98.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, ten 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 a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.08.

Ciena Trading Down 1.8%

NYSE CIEN opened at $78.66 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $11.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 109.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.11. Ciena has a 12-month low of $44.89 and a 12-month high of $101.44. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $77.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $76.04. The company has a current ratio of 3.40, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.08). Ciena had a net margin of 2.46% and a return on equity of 5.08%. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.27 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.54, for a total value of $404,872.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 375,680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,367,987.20. The trade was a 1.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.50, for a total transaction of $187,162.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 84,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,829,056.50. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 41,919 shares of company stock valued at $3,115,199. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 108.6% in the fourth quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 290 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ciena by 73.7% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 328.2% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 77.2% in the 4th quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the period. Finally, Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.