David M. Rothenstein Sells 3,500 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total transaction of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Ciena Trading Up 1.1 %

CIEN stock traded up $0.70 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $66.57. The stock had a trading volume of 1,126,619 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,822,900. The firm has a market cap of $9.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $39.94 and a 1-year high of $69.91. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $57.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $51.33.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.36 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on CIEN shares. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Evercore ISI lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.08.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth about $40,000. 91.99% of the stock is 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.