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 company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total value of $1,137,776.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,618,161.34. This trade represents a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN stock traded up $0.79 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $84.40. 1,651,590 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,916,630. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $62.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.99 billion, a PE ratio of 89.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $91.82. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter worth about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in Ciena by 925.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Ciena by 152.8% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP lifted its stake in Ciena by 118.9% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $76,000 after acquiring an additional 854 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on CIEN. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently 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.