Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Sells $235,050.48 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total transaction of $235,050.48. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,607 shares in the company, valued at $4,435,197.48. This represents a 5.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Ciena Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE CIEN opened at $84.81 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $74.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $61.44. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $43.30 and a one year high of $91.82. The company has a market capitalization of $12.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 90.22, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $148,348,000 after purchasing an additional 33,074 shares during the period. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the second quarter worth approximately $5,039,000. Atria Investments Inc bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,988,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after acquiring an additional 108,407 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 119.6% in the third quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 239,389 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $14,744,000 after purchasing an additional 130,399 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on CIEN shares. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.00.

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.