Insider Selling: Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells 13,600 Shares of Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total value of $1,137,776.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,618,161.34. This represents a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $84.40 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $75.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $62.32. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $91.82. The firm has a market cap of $11.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The company’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in 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 buying an additional 365 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 118.9% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 854 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.