Insider Selling: Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells $1,019,184.00 in Stock

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.88, for a total transaction of $1,019,184.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 282,070 shares in the company, valued at $42,276,651.60. This represents a 2.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $151.28 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.28, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 155.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.15. Ciena Corporation has a 1-year low of $49.21 and a 1-year high of $154.02. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $111.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $86.45.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Atreides Management LP bought a new position in Ciena in the second quarter valued at approximately $102,705,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $70,065,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in Ciena by 3,577.9% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,032,393 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $83,965,000 after acquiring an additional 1,004,323 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its stake in Ciena by 375.4% in the second quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,235,696 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $100,499,000 after acquiring an additional 975,792 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rokos Capital Management LLP boosted its stake in Ciena by 546.9% in the second quarter. Rokos Capital Management LLP now owns 997,425 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $81,106,000 after acquiring an additional 843,235 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $78.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $127.50 to $175.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $102.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $122.86.

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.