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 firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.86, for a total transaction of $577,048.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 412,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,974,964.14. This represents a 1.62 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $93.13 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $83.64 and a 200-day moving average of $68.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.23 billion, a PE ratio of 163.38, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $43.30 and a 12 month high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays boosted their price target on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI cut Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.77.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Ciena in the 4th quarter worth about $40,919,000. First Business Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. First Business Financial Services Inc. now owns 22,474 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,906,000 after buying an additional 1,113 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 41,915 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,555,000 after buying an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 8,400 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $712,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc increased its position in shares of Ciena by 28.7% during the fourth quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 41,557 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,524,000 after acquiring an additional 9,274 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.