Gary B. Smith Sells 6,800 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.29, for a total transaction of $579,972.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 418,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,732,160.21. This trade represents a 1.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN traded up $0.92 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $84.96. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,563,631 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,718,021. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $78.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $64.08. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market cap of $12.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 149.06, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.89. 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 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has approved 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 reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 59.2% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Ciena by 26.7% during the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,071 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $600,000 after buying an additional 1,491 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth $421,000. Boston Common Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at $256,000. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter worth $245,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. BNP Paribas cut Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently 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.