Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells $577,048.00 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.86, for a total value of $577,048.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 412,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,974,964.14. The trade was a 1.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $93.13 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $13.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 163.38, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.88. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $43.30 and a twelve month high of $101.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $83.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.19.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released 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 return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities raised their price target on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.77.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $202,000. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in Ciena by 640.7% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 64,466 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,106,000 after acquiring an additional 55,763 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its stake in Ciena by 13.7% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 8,799 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $424,000 after acquiring an additional 1,062 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Ciena by 10.4% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 29,614 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,427,000 after acquiring an additional 2,800 shares during the period. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 2nd quarter worth about $221,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.