Insider Selling: Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells 4,166 Shares of Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.16, for a total value of $204,800.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 376,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,522,357.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Ciena Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Ciena stock traded down $0.35 on Friday, reaching $48.85. 854,011 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,394,492. The company has a market capitalization of $7.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.00. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $39.94 and a 52 week high of $63.24. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $48.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $48.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 3.12 and a current ratio of 4.29.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI raised 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Ciena from $56.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Citigroup began coverage on Ciena in a research report on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $44.00 price target on the stock. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Ciena in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price objective for the company. Finally, StockNews.com raised Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.79.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1,944.4% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $101,986,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961,513 shares in the last quarter. Atreides Management LP purchased a new position in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $77,883,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at about $73,476,000. Rokos Capital Management LLP lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 118.7% during the first quarter. Rokos Capital Management LLP now owns 1,524,332 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $75,378,000 after purchasing an additional 827,352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Ciena by 29.1% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,513,633 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $158,149,000 after purchasing an additional 791,215 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.