Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Sells $88,928.11 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN opened at $67.07 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $42.20 and a 52-week high of $73.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.69 billion, a PE ratio of 71.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.46 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $64.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $54.96.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Ciena announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in 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 usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on CIEN shares. Evercore ISI downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the second quarter worth about $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in Ciena by 152.8% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its position in Ciena by 339.5% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.