Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Price Down 7% – What’s Next?

Shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) were down 7% during mid-day trading on Friday. The stock traded as low as $330.99 and last traded at $331.7330. 3,184,229 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 10% from the average session volume of 2,901,611 shares. The stock had previously closed at $356.52.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $475.00 to $548.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Argus set a $550.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. CL King set a $347.00 target price on Ciena in a report on Friday, September 4th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Evercore raised Ciena from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $506.11.

Ciena Stock Down 7.0%

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $377.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $441.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 3.17 and a current ratio of 3.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 74.05, a PEG ratio of 5.00 and a beta of 1.28.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 3rd. The communications equipment provider reported $2.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by $0.38. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 25.33% and a net margin of 10.87%. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was up 37.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Ciena Corporation will post 6.00 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, Director Thomas Nevens sold 3,738 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $359.04, for a total transaction of $1,342,091.52. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,289 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,258,002.56. The trade was a 37.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.18, for a total value of $974,691.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 240,126 shares in the company, valued at approximately $79,284,802.68. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 31,862 shares of company stock valued at $12,017,320. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Markowski Investments bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 57.8% during the second quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 71 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Asset Dedication LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 2,100.0% during the first quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 88 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the period. Bogart Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 635.7% during the first quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 103 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, Western Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the first quarter worth approximately $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation is a networking technology company that provides communications infrastructure, software and services for telecommunications providers, cloud operators, enterprises, governments and research institutions. Its solutions are designed to help organizations build, manage and automate high-capacity networks that support applications such as cloud computing, broadband connectivity, data center interconnection and 5G services.

The company’s portfolio includes optical networking systems and coherent optical technologies, routing and switching platforms, broadband access solutions, network management software and professional services.