Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Ciena (NYSE:CIEN)

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders purchased 2,594 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 76% compared to the average daily volume of 1,475 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the subject of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Ciena from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 7th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ciena from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $53.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.25.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,368,269.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total transaction of $170,835.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,368,269.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Riverwater Partners LLC lifted its stake in Ciena by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 26,281 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,300,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 4.6% in the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after buying an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 17.4% during the 2nd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 3,465 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $167,000 after acquiring an additional 514 shares during the period. Lumbard & Kellner LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Lumbard & Kellner LLC now owns 65,799 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,170,000 after acquiring an additional 612 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in Ciena by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 30,862 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,487,000 after acquiring an additional 632 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of Ciena stock traded down $0.87 on Tuesday, hitting $56.78. 894,855 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,715,451. Ciena has a one year low of $39.94 and a one year high of $63.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 3.88 and a quick ratio of 2.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.16 billion, a PE ratio of 55.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $50.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.12. Ciena had a return on equity of 7.16% and a net margin of 3.71%. The company had revenue of $910.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $895.80 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.59 EPS. Ciena’s revenue was down 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.