Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Short Interest Update

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) was the target of a large increase in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,750,000 shares, an increase of 19.0% from the August 15th total of 4,830,000 shares. Approximately 4.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,560,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.7 days.

Ciena Trading Up 0.3 %

CIEN stock traded up $0.15 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $56.45. 1,637,088 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,764,228. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $51.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $49.80. Ciena has a 52-week low of $39.94 and a 52-week high of $63.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.11 billion, a PE ratio of 54.27, a P/E/G ratio of 6.86 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.36 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on CIEN shares. Raymond James downgraded Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. B. Riley dropped their price target on Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.15.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,368,269.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the first quarter worth about $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the first quarter worth about $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the second quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 339.5% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.