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

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

Ciena Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $84.96 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $91.82. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.45. 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 $12.07 billion, a PE ratio of 149.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.89.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its 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). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on CIEN. Citigroup upped their price target on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Northland Securities increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 3.8% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in Ciena by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $635,000 after buying an additional 244 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Ciena by 59.2% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in Ciena by 925.0% during the fourth 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 period. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 5.4% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $380,000 after acquiring an additional 318 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.