Joseph Cumello Sells 3,156 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Joseph Cumello sold 3,156 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.74, for a total transaction of $144,355.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,171 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,340,561.54. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $43.57 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $6.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.29, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50 day moving average is $51.80 and its 200 day moving average is $48.17. The company has a quick ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 4.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $39.94 and a 52-week high of $63.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.18. Ciena had a net margin of 5.22% and a return on equity of 9.92%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.48 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They set a “sell” rating and a $44.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com raised shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Finally, BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.79.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the first quarter valued at $33,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in Ciena by 63.9% during the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 849 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 331 shares during the period. Sunbelt Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Ciena during the first quarter valued at $59,000. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at $61,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.