Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith Sells 6,800 Shares of Stock

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.23, for a total value of $559,164.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 325,557 shares in the company, valued at $26,770,552.11. This represents a 2.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Ciena Trading Up 0.9%

NYSE:CIEN opened at $84.90 on Friday. Ciena Corporation has a twelve month low of $44.89 and a twelve month high of $101.44. The company has a quick ratio of 2.57, a current ratio of 3.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $78.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $75.83. The company has a market cap of $12.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 118.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.11.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.08). Ciena had a return on equity of 5.08% and a net margin of 2.46%. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.27 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 108.6% during the 4th quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 290 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Ciena by 328.2% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 279 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 73.7% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the period. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 77.2% in the 4th quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares during the period. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd raised its stake in Ciena by 34.7% in the 1st quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 636 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Northland Securities set a $100.00 price objective on Ciena in a report on Monday, June 30th. UBS Group increased their price target on Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Wolfe Research upgraded Ciena to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Ciena from $65.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.54.

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.