Bruce L. Claflin Sells 16,912 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. This represents a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Ciena Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE CIEN opened at $82.22 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $76.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.83. 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 market cap of $11.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.47, a PEG ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $43.30 and a 52 week high of $91.82.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on CIEN shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 119.9% in 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 buying an additional 2,943,146 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 7,767.2% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $94,742,000 after acquiring an additional 1,941,419 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at $57,861,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 428.2% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 886,354 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $42,705,000 after buying an additional 718,551 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,416,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.