Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) PT Raised to $60.00 at Morgan Stanley

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its target price hoisted by Morgan Stanley from $55.00 to $60.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on CIEN. Northland Securities reiterated a market perform rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Barclays dropped their target price on Ciena from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ciena has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $59.15.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $51.16 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.88, a quick ratio of 2.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $51.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $49.92. Ciena has a 1-year low of $39.94 and a 1-year high of $63.24. The stock has a market cap of $7.35 billion, a PE ratio of 49.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Ciena had a return on equity of 7.16% and a net margin of 3.71%. The business had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 119.9% in the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after purchasing an additional 2,943,146 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. now owns 5,021,719 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $226,028,000 after acquiring an additional 368,897 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Ciena by 29.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,513,633 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $158,149,000 after acquiring an additional 791,215 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Ciena by 24.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $130,392,000 after acquiring an additional 523,313 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Ciena by 1,944.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $101,986,000 after acquiring an additional 1,961,513 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.