Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary Smith Sells 2,952 Shares of Stock

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary Smith sold 2,952 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.66, for a total transaction of $1,091,236.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 228,407 shares in the company, valued at $84,432,931.62. This represents a 1.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Ciena Stock Down 10.1%

CIEN stock opened at $404.26 on Tuesday. Ciena Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $637.51. The business’s 50-day moving average is $379.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $441.83. 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 company has a market cap of $57.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 90.24, a P/E/G ratio of 6.25 and a beta of 1.28.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 30,114.5% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,870,677 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $671,365,000 after acquiring an additional 2,861,176 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at about $404,948,000. Atreides Management LP raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Atreides Management LP now owns 1,428,230 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $334,020,000 after purchasing an additional 27,466 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 413,332 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $160,468,000 after purchasing an additional 26,900 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 10.7% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 321,825 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $124,942,000 after purchasing an additional 31,098 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Evercore raised Ciena from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 21st. CL King set a $347.00 price objective on Ciena in a research note on Friday, September 4th. Zacks Research raised Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Ciena from $635.00 to $605.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $506.11.

Key Headlines Impacting Ciena

Here are the key news stories impacting Ciena this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Ciena’s recent results and outlook remain supportive: record quarterly performance was attributed to strong AI and data-center demand, improved margins, and supply-chain investments. The company also has ambitious fiscal 2029 targets. Can Ciena Sustain Margin Gains Despite Rising Component Demand?
• Positive Sentiment: Technical analysis identified a bullish monthly reversal and a potential continuation of the longer-term advance if the stock holds key support levels. Ciena Corporation Price Forecast
• Positive Sentiment: Openreach’s deployment of Ciena technology highlights continuing customer adoption of the company’s optical-networking products. Openreach deployed Ciena technology
• Neutral Sentiment: Ciena appointed Monika Fahlbusch as chief people officer, a management update with limited immediate earnings impact. Ciena appoints Monika Fahlbusch
• Negative Sentiment: The immediate catalyst was likely profit-taking after the recent rally, amplified by a sector-wide selloff that included Lumentum and other optical-networking companies. Ciena amid profit-taking after recent rally
• Negative Sentiment: Recent cautious commentary about AI spending raised concerns that hyperscaler or data-center customers could moderate infrastructure budgets, weighing on Ciena’s growth narrative and other AI-linked stocks. Why optical stocks were among the market’s biggest losers

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.