Gary B. Smith Sells 6,800 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.86, for a total value of $577,048.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 412,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,974,964.14. This represents a 1.62 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $92.15 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.10 billion, a PE ratio of 161.67, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $83.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $68.01. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $101.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72.

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). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Greenleaf Trust raised its position in Ciena by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 4,978 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $422,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in Ciena by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,459 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $887,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 4,469 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $379,000 after buying an additional 226 shares during the period. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,914 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $417,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on CIEN shares. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.77.

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.