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

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 391,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,534,199.82. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $65.84 on Thursday. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $101.44. The stock has a market cap of $9.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 115.52, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $81.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $73.48.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake 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 during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in Ciena by 73.7% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 328.2% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 77.2% in the 4th quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Northland Capmk upgraded Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Northland Securities raised shares of Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.38.

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.