Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Price Target Increased to $60.00 by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) had its price objective lifted by Morgan Stanley from $55.00 to $60.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on CIEN. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Ciena from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 7th. Northland Securities reissued a market perform rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted 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. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd. Finally, Raymond James downgraded Ciena from a strong-buy rating to an outperform rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $59.15.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $51.18 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $7.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.21, a PEG ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s 50 day moving average is $51.06 and its 200 day moving average is $49.95. The company has a quick ratio of 2.76, a current ratio of 3.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena has a 52-week low of $39.94 and a 52-week high of $63.24.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ciena during the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Ciena during the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new position in Ciena during the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its position in Ciena by 339.5% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.