Insider Selling: 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 company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.29, for a total transaction of $579,972.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 418,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,732,160.21. This represents a 1.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Ciena Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $84.96 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $78.40 and its 200-day moving average is $64.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $43.30 and a 52 week high of $91.82. The company has a market capitalization of $12.07 billion, a PE ratio of 149.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.89.

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 analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,334,290,000 after acquiring an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its holdings in Ciena by 119.9% during the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after purchasing an additional 2,943,146 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Ciena by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,427,000 after purchasing an additional 53,078 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Ciena by 24.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $130,392,000 after buying an additional 523,313 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $148,348,000 after buying an additional 33,074 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CIEN. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of 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. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average 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.