Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells $579,972.00 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.29, for a total transaction of $579,972.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 418,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,732,160.21. This trade represents a 1.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $84.96 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 149.06, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $78.40 and its 200-day moving average is $64.58. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $43.30 and a 12 month high of $91.82.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.57 EPS for the current year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Ciena by 26.4% during the 2nd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,647 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $513,000 after acquiring an additional 2,227 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 42.2% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 223,051 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $10,747,000 after purchasing an additional 66,214 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Ciena by 24.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $130,392,000 after purchasing an additional 523,313 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank lifted its position in Ciena by 2.4% during the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 81,232 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,914,000 after purchasing an additional 1,869 shares during the period. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its stake in Ciena by 52.4% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 7,737 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $373,000 after buying an additional 2,661 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the subject of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, October 7th. BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

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.