Insider Selling: Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells 6,800 Shares of Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total transaction of $519,588.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 398,549 shares in the company, valued at $30,453,129.09. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Ciena Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE CIEN traded up $0.94 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $75.25. 1,815,244 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,929,092. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $101.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.73 billion, a PE ratio of 132.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $85.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $72.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on CIEN shares. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.77.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,334,290,000 after acquiring an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ciena by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,316,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,299,004,000 after acquiring an additional 139,941 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 0.3% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 17,447 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Ciena by 195.9% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 3,062,883 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in Ciena by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $273,427,000 after purchasing an additional 53,078 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is 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.