Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Gap Down – Here’s Why

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $65.53, but opened at $61.78. Ciena shares last traded at $60.81, with a volume of 1,055,753 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price target on Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.62.

Ciena Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $9.36 billion, a PE ratio of 115.22, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The business has a 50-day moving average of $83.90 and a 200 day moving average of $73.22.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at $5,042,121.12. This represents a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in Ciena by 2.4% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $635,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at about $289,000. Atria Investments Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the third quarter worth about $1,988,000. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 97.5% during the third quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now owns 46,584 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,869,000 after acquiring an additional 23,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, North Growth Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of Ciena by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. North Growth Management Ltd. now owns 531,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,677,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by 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.