Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Sells $30,068.50 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Ciena Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE CIEN opened at $84.96 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 149.06, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $78.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $64.45. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $43.30 and a 12 month high of $91.82.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 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 company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter worth about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Ciena by 152.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the period. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on CIEN shares. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.