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

JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a research report released on Monday morning, MarketBeat reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has $65.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America restated a neutral rating and issued a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a buy rating and set a $65.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ciena from a sell rating to a buy rating and boosted their price target for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Northland Securities restated a market perform rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, 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 research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $62.92.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $68.50 on Monday. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $56.39 and a 200-day moving average of $50.94. The company has a market cap of $9.84 billion, a PE ratio of 65.87, a P/E/G ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena has a one year low of $39.94 and a one year high of $68.52.

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

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits 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 management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda purchased a new stake in Ciena in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the 1st quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the 1st quarter worth $40,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently 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.