Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Price Down 5.6% Following Analyst Downgrade

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN)’s share price was down 5.6% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after B. Riley Financial lowered their price target on the stock from $516.00 to $413.00. B. Riley Financial currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Ciena traded as low as $356.40 and last traded at $361.42. Approximately 2,182,994 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 24% from the average session volume of 2,866,101 shares. The stock had previously closed at $382.80.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on CIEN. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $372.00 to $607.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $345.00 to $658.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings cut Ciena from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $405.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $521.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, CFO Marc D. Graff sold 4,995 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $430.72, for a total transaction of $2,151,446.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 107,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,310,583.68. The trade was a 4.44% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 1,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.10, for a total value of $559,320.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 42,741 shares in the company, valued at $19,921,580.10. The trade was a 2.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 22,470 shares of company stock valued at $9,967,521 in the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Corient Private Wealth LP boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 34,452 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $16,901,000 after purchasing an additional 172 shares during the period. Formuepleje A S acquired a new position in Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $808,000. Advus Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the second quarter valued at $282,000. Groupe la Francaise bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $11,911,000. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 2nd quarter worth $11,646,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Trading Down 5.6%

The company has a market capitalization of $51.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 120.47 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.11. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $414.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $437.16.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 18.15% and a net margin of 7.87%.The company had revenue of $1.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena’s product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.