Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Gap Down After Earnings Miss

Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday following a dissappointing earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $83.89, but opened at $76.85. Ciena shares last traded at $72.52, with a volume of 3,508,713 shares trading hands.

The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.08). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.27 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays set a $100.00 target price on Ciena and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Ciena from $76.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Citigroup cut their target price on Ciena from $98.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Northland Capmk upgraded shares of Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $44.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $83.15.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 18,888 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.88, for a total transaction of $1,131,013.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 89,258 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,344,769.04. This represents a 17.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.18, for a total transaction of $443,224.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 391,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,534,199.82. This represents a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 51,788 shares of company stock valued at $3,431,319 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,316,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,299,004,000 after acquiring an additional 139,941 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,236,920 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $444,143,000 after purchasing an additional 17,447 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 195.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $392,345,000 after purchasing an additional 3,062,883 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Ciena by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,227,020 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,684,000 after buying an additional 49,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Ciena by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,419,947 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $205,301,000 after buying an additional 11,933 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Down 0.2%

The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a market capitalization of $10.36 billion, a PE ratio of 127.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.12. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $70.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.84.

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.