Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) gapped down before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $96.62, but opened at $84.60. Ciena shares last traded at $81.71, with a volume of 2,113,193 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on CIEN shares. Evercore ISI lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

Ciena Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $11.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 138.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $80.64 and its 200-day moving average is $66.18.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 59,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. This trade represents a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 50,781 shares of company stock valued at $4,298,500. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Ciena by 0.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,427,000 after purchasing an additional 53,078 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $148,348,000 after acquiring an additional 33,074 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 0.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 955,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $58,850,000 after acquiring an additional 6,605 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter valued at $57,861,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Ciena

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.