Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Downgraded by BNP Paribas to Neutral

BNP Paribas lowered shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) from an outperform rating to a neutral rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have $67.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock, up from their previous target price of $59.00.

CIEN has been the subject of several other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup raised shares of Ciena from a sell rating to a buy rating and upped their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday, September 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $62.92.

Ciena Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $68.47 on Wednesday. Ciena has a 1 year low of $39.94 and a 1 year high of $69.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $56.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $51.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. The company has a market cap of $9.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.84, a PEG ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its 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. The company had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,368,269.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,368,269.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, 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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $502,953. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. 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. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter valued at approximately $48,214,000. Finally, Rokos Capital Management LLP boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 118.7% during the first quarter. Rokos Capital Management LLP now owns 1,524,332 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $75,378,000 after purchasing an additional 827,352 shares in the last quarter. 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.