Short Interest in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Expands By 22.2%

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totalling 4,020,000 shares, a growth of 22.2% from the June 15th total of 3,290,000 shares. Approximately 2.8% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,590,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.16, for a total value of $204,800.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 376,777 shares in the company, valued at $18,522,357.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.16, for a total transaction of $204,800.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 376,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,522,357.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 12,332 shares of company stock worth $598,801. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,084,694 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $712,903,000 after buying an additional 155,964 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. lifted its stake in Ciena by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. now owns 5,021,719 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $226,028,000 after buying an additional 368,897 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 29.1% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,513,633 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $158,149,000 after acquiring an additional 791,215 shares during the last quarter. Senvest Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 2,952,264 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $132,881,000 after buying an additional 552,882 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Ciena by 18.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,162,410 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $97,331,000 after acquiring an additional 332,181 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Raymond James lowered shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. Morgan Stanley raised Ciena from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $53.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Citigroup started coverage on Ciena in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $44.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.25.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN stock traded up $2.77 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $51.69. 2,263,380 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,823,963. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.76 and a current ratio of 3.88. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $48.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $49.80. Ciena has a 52-week low of $39.94 and a 52-week high of $63.24. The company has a market cap of $7.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.68, a PEG ratio of 4.91 and a beta of 0.95.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.12. Ciena had a return on equity of 7.16% and a net margin of 3.71%. The business had revenue of $910.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $895.80 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.59 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Ciena will post 1.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.