Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Downgraded by Northland Capmk to “Hold”

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) was downgraded by analysts at Northland Capmk from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Friday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on CIEN. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. BNP Paribas set a $185.00 target price on shares of Ciena and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Evercore ISI set a $240.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday. Zacks Research cut shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.38.

Ciena Stock Down 9.7%

CIEN stock opened at $218.82 on Friday. Ciena has a 52 week low of $49.21 and a 52 week high of $248.00. The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $188.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $128.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 257.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.17.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.15. Ciena had a return on equity of 8.38% and a net margin of 2.59%.The company had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.54 EPS. Ciena’s revenue was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,863 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.14, for a total transaction of $262,943.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 43,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,143,965.34. The trade was a 4.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.61, for a total transaction of $1,309,748.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 254,870 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,090,510.70. This represents a 2.60% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 51,935 shares of company stock valued at $8,707,266 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 28.6% during the first quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 48,879 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,954,000 after buying an additional 10,856 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in Ciena by 15.4% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,147 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Prudential PLC increased its holdings in Ciena by 16.7% during the 1st quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 5,869 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $355,000 after acquiring an additional 839 shares in the last quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. increased its stake in Ciena by 60.5% in the first quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 6,009 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $363,000 after purchasing an additional 2,266 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fox Run Management L.L.C. purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 1st quarter worth $816,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.