Ciena's (CIEN) "Underweight" Rating Reiterated at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley restated their underweight rating on shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) in a report released on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $70.00 price objective on the communications equipment provider's stock, down from their previous price objective of $73.00.

CIEN has been the subject of several other reports. Evercore ISI restated a "mixed" rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Northland Capmk raised shares of Ciena from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $76.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ciena from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $84.08.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN traded up $0.76 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $79.42. The stock had a trading volume of 1,330,314 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,124,541. The company's 50-day moving average price is $77.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $76.06. The company has a market capitalization of $11.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 110.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a quick ratio of 2.57, a current ratio of 3.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $44.89 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.46% and a return on equity of 5.08%. Ciena's quarterly revenue was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.60, for a total value of $25,410.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 45,883 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,331,105.80. This represents a 0.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.35, for a total transaction of $546,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 332,357 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,704,884.95. This represents a 2.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 41,919 shares of company stock worth $3,115,199. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 108.6% in the 4th quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 290 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 328.2% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 73.7% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 77.2% in the 4th quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 34.7% in the 1st quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 636 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.