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

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors purchased 3,297 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 50% compared to the typical volume of 2,191 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on CIEN shares. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. BNP Paribas began coverage on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $44.00 price target for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $56.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.79.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total value of $26,442.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 41,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,052,464.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $26,442.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 41,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,052,464.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 3,156 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.74, for a total transaction of $144,355.44. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,171 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,340,561.54. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 107,189 shares of company stock valued at $5,754,880. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 87.0% during the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 50,597 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,407,000 after buying an additional 23,544 shares during the period. DigitalBridge Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 34.4% during the third quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 352,727 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $16,670,000 after purchasing an additional 90,206 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Ciena by 2.2% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 17,585 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $833,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares during the period. Sowell Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter worth about $483,000. Finally, Atreides Management LP purchased a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter worth about $77,883,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $45.02 on Thursday. 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 company has a market cap of $6.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.23, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50 day moving average is $51.10 and its 200 day moving average is $48.18. Ciena has a 12-month low of $39.94 and a 12-month high of $63.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released 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 company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 5.22% and a return on equity of 9.92%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.48 EPS. On average, equities research 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.