Insider Selling: Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Sells $478,046.72 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Jason Phipps sold 5,648 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total value of $478,046.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 109,878 shares in the company, valued at $9,300,073.92. The trade was a 4.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Ciena Trading Up 0.4 %

CIEN opened at $82.22 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $76.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $62.69. The firm has a market cap of $11.68 billion, a PE ratio of 87.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $43.30 and a twelve month high of $91.82. 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 (NYSE:CIEN) last posted 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). Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 107.9% in the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 46,467 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,239,000 after purchasing an additional 24,120 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 17.2% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,464 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $98,743,000 after buying an additional 301,390 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.7% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 40,482 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,950,000 after buying an additional 679 shares in the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC raised its position in Ciena by 275.1% in the 2nd quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 21,914 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,056,000 after buying an additional 16,072 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Paralel Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,229,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on CIEN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

About Ciena

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.