Brodie Gage Sells 350 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. This represents a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $84.96 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 149.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $78.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $64.58. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $43.30 and a twelve month 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 for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. UMB Bank n.a. raised 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 buying an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 26.7% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $421,000. Boston Common Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter worth approximately $256,000. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter worth approximately $245,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 28th. BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.