Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Ciena (NYSE:CIEN)

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) was the target of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 3,297 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 50% compared to the average daily volume of 2,191 call options.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 70,838 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.11, for a total value of $3,833,044.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 424,006 shares in the company, valued at $22,942,964.66. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 70,838 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.11, for a total value of $3,833,044.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 424,006 shares in the company, valued at $22,942,964.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 8,332 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.20, for a total value of $501,586.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 407,342 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,521,988.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 107,189 shares of company stock worth $5,754,880. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 166.5% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 8,987 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $425,000 after acquiring an additional 5,615 shares in the last quarter. DDD Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Ciena by 41.9% during the 3rd quarter. DDD Partners LLC now owns 308,042 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $13,409,000 after buying an additional 90,907 shares during the period. Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth about $600,000. Trinity Street Asset Management LLP lifted its holdings in Ciena by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Trinity Street Asset Management LLP now owns 309,184 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $14,612,000 after buying an additional 8,859 shares during the period. Finally, Xponance Inc. lifted its holdings in Ciena by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 19,293 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $912,000 after buying an additional 1,179 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on CIEN shares. Citigroup started coverage on Ciena in a report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “sell” rating and a $44.00 price objective for the company. BNP Paribas started coverage on Ciena in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com raised Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.79.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CIEN traded up $0.15 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $44.07. 411,856 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,986,590. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $51.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $48.20. Ciena has a 52 week low of $39.94 and a 52 week high of $63.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 3.12 and a current ratio of 4.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.99.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 9.92% and a net margin of 5.22%. The firm had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.48 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.46 EPS for the current year.

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.