JPMorgan Chase & Co. Downgrades Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) to Neutral

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has $65.00 price objective on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on CIEN. Citigroup raised shares of Ciena from a sell rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Northland Securities reiterated a market perform rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a neutral rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $62.92.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $68.50 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $56.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $50.94. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $39.94 and a fifty-two week high of $68.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.84 billion, a PE ratio of 65.87, a PEG ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.36 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,552,877.04. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $502,953 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the 1st quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter worth approximately $40,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently 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.