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

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.29, for a total transaction of $579,972.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 418,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,732,160.21. This trade represents a 1.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Ciena Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of CIEN stock traded up $0.92 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $84.96. 1,563,631 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,718,021. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 149.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $91.82. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $78.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $64.08.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CIEN. 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. Barclays lifted their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in Ciena by 59.2% in 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 during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 26.7% during the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,071 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $600,000 after acquiring an additional 1,491 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $421,000. Boston Common Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter worth approximately $256,000. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management purchased a new position in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth $245,000. 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.