Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith Sells 6,800 Shares

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.29, for a total transaction of $579,972.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 418,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,732,160.21. The trade was a 1.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $84.96 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 149.06, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50-day moving average of $78.40 and a 200-day moving average of $64.33. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $91.82.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.57 EPS for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 59.2% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Ciena by 26.7% during the 4th quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,071 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $600,000 after buying an additional 1,491 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $421,000. Boston Common Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $256,000. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter worth $245,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CIEN. Rosenblatt Securities raised 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. Evercore ISI downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays lifted their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. 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, Ciena currently 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.