Brodie Gage Sells 350 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

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

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN traded up $0.92 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $84.96. The stock had a trading volume of 1,561,548 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,717,832. The stock has a market cap of $12.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 149.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $91.82. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $78.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.08.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The company’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.57 EPS for the current year.

Ciena announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new position in Ciena in the third quarter worth $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd 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 holdings in shares of Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 period. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. 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. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Barclays upped their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.