Joseph Cumello Sells 1,289 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Ciena Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of CIEN stock traded up $0.49 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $67.07. 329,998 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,797,364. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 70.85, a P/E/G ratio of 5.46 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. The business’s fifty day moving average is $64.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $54.82. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $42.20 and a 12-month high of $73.47.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS 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 business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Ciena by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,000 after buying an additional 239 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in Ciena by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $635,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $380,000 after buying an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

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.