Insider Selling: Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells $519,588.00 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total value of $519,588.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 398,549 shares in the company, valued at $30,453,129.09. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Ciena Stock Up 0.5 %

NYSE CIEN opened at $68.75 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $84.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $72.78. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $43.30 and a 52 week high of $101.44. The company has a market capitalization of $9.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 120.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued 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). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. Northland Securities increased their target price on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered their target price on Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.62.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC raised its stake in Ciena by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,316,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,299,004,000 after purchasing an additional 139,941 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its stake in Ciena by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,236,920 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $444,143,000 after purchasing an additional 17,447 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Ciena by 195.9% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $392,345,000 after buying an additional 3,062,883 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 53,078 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.