Insider Selling: Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Sells $30,068.50 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,256,582.77. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Ciena Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $84.96 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $78.40 and its 200-day moving average price 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 P/E ratio of 149.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.89.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the period. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. Kieckhefer Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 152.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on CIEN. Morgan Stanley downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

About Ciena

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.