Earnings and a downgrade have ANW shares trading at levels not seen since last summer
Analysts are weighing in on fuel logistics firm Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. (NYSE:ANW), tech stock Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN), and blue chip IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM). Here's a quick roundup of today's bearish brokerage notes on shares of ANW, CIEN, and IBM.
ANW Stock Slaughtered After Earnings
Aegean stock has gapped 37% lower to $6.60 -- its lowest point since last August. Weighing on ANW shares is the company's first-quarter earnings miss, as well as a downgrade to "hold" from "buy" from Stifel. The brokerage firm also slashed its price target in half to $9. The stock had recently found support atop its 200-day moving average, but is now trading well below this trendline and is in the red year-to-date.
Short sellers are likely reaping the rewards of this post-earnings bear gap. Though ANW stock is short-sale restricted today, a record 6.3 million shares are currently sold short -- 24% of the security's available float.
CIEN Stock Dips After Deutsche Bank Downgrade
Analysts at Deutsche Bank cut their rating on Ciena stock to "hold" from "buy," and sliced their price target to $23 from $28. The brokerage firm said it expects CIEN to remain range-bound in the near term amid lower earnings-per-share expectations. Ciena will unveil its fiscal second-quarter results before the market opens on Thursday, June 1.
Against this backdrop, CIEN stock is trading down 3.4% at $23.53 -- a region that served as a magnet for the shares in March. Should Ciena shares continue to struggle, there's plenty of room for analysts to continue to downwardly revise their ratings. Of the 15 covering the stock, 13 maintain a "buy" or better rating, with not a single "sell" on the books.
Stifel Slashes Price Target on IBM Stock
IBM stock saw its price target cut to $182 from $192 at Stifel this morning. In response, the shares are trading down 0.1% at $151.87, though the negative price action is nothing new for Big Blue. In fact, since reporting earnings in late April, IBM shares have shed nearly 11%, a move exacerbated in early May on Warren Buffett-related woes.
IBM options traders have kept the faith, though. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), the stock's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 1.65 ranks in the 77th annual percentile, meaning calls have been bought to open over puts at a faster-than-usual clip.