Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Sells $311,815.00 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Ciena Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE CIEN traded down $1.60 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $86.54. 985,623 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,856,174. The company has a market cap of $12.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 154.63, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $69.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.51. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $42.76 and a one year high of $91.82.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The firm’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 55.5% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 10,441 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $503,000 after buying an additional 3,725 shares during the last quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena in the second quarter valued at approximately $355,000. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena in the second quarter valued at approximately $227,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Ciena in the second quarter worth $146,000. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in shares of Ciena by 0.7% during the second quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 169,852 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $8,183,000 after purchasing an additional 1,133 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CIEN shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Northland Securities upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

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.