Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target Lowered to $79.00 at Rosenblatt Securities

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price objective lowered by Rosenblatt Securities from $94.00 to $79.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Rosenblatt Securities’ price objective indicates a potential upside of 16.01% from the company’s previous close.

CIEN has been the subject of several other research reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.62.

Ciena Stock Down 9.5 %

CIEN opened at $68.10 on Friday. Ciena has a twelve month low of $43.30 and a twelve month high of $101.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $85.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $72.81. The firm has a market cap of $9.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 119.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 5,648 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total transaction of $478,046.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 109,878 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,300,073.92. This represents a 4.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total transaction of $519,588.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 398,549 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,453,129.09. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $148,348,000 after acquiring an additional 33,074 shares during the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter worth approximately $245,000. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth $421,000. Atria Investments Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,988,000. Finally, FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,334,290,000 after acquiring an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.