Insider Selling: Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells 6,800 Shares of Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.18, for a total transaction of $443,224.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 391,749 shares in the company, valued at $25,534,199.82. This trade represents a 1.71 % 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 Stock Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $65.58 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $101.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.32 billion, a PE ratio of 115.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $80.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $73.42.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CIEN. Rosenblatt Securities cut their target price on shares of Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities upgraded shares of Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $75.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Barclays set a $100.00 target price on shares of Ciena and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.38.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ciena by 108.6% during the 4th quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 290 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Ciena by 328.2% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 279 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Ciena by 73.7% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Ciena by 77.2% during the 4th quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.