Morgan Stanley Boosts Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target to $60.00

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price target hoisted by Morgan Stanley from $55.00 to $60.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

CIEN has been the subject of several other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $52.50 to $54.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 30th. B. Riley dropped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $59.15.

Ciena Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of CIEN opened at $51.18 on Wednesday. Ciena has a 1 year low of $39.94 and a 1 year high of $63.24. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 3.88 and a quick ratio of 2.76. The firm has a market cap of $7.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 7.16%. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total transaction of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at $10,368,269.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its position in shares of Ciena by 119.9% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,943,146 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Ciena by 1,944.4% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $101,986,000 after acquiring an additional 1,961,513 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 7,767.2% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $94,742,000 after acquiring an additional 1,941,419 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter worth approximately $73,476,000. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth approximately $48,214,000. 91.99% of the stock is 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.