Insider Selling: Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells $1,137,776.00 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total transaction of $1,137,776.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 425,749 shares in the company, valued at $35,618,161.34. The trade was a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $82.22 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $76.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $62.69. The stock has a market cap of $11.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $43.30 and a twelve month high of $91.82.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly 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 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Ciena by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $148,348,000 after buying an additional 33,074 shares during the period. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new position in Ciena during the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,039,000. Atria Investments Inc bought a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter worth about $1,988,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 0.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares during the period. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 119.6% during the third quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 239,389 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $14,744,000 after purchasing an additional 130,399 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the topic of several recent research reports. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Evercore ISI lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.00.

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.