Joseph Cumello Sells 3,156 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Joseph Cumello sold 3,156 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.74, for a total value of $144,355.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,171 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,340,561.54. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Ciena Stock Down 2.3 %

Ciena stock opened at $43.77 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $39.94 and a twelve month high of $63.24. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $52.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $48.19. The company has a current ratio of 4.29, a quick ratio of 3.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.99.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 5.22% and a return on equity of 9.92%. The company’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.48 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on CIEN shares. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Ciena from $56.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Citigroup started coverage on Ciena in a research report on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $44.00 target price on the stock. BNP Paribas started coverage on Ciena in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.79.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth $33,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 63.9% during the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 849 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 331 shares in the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth $59,000. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter worth $61,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.