Insider Selling: Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Sells $284,545.28 in Stock

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Jason Phipps sold 1,984 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.42, for a total value of $284,545.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 80,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,508,594.48. The trade was a 2.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Ciena Stock Up 4.8%

Shares of NYSE CIEN traded up $9.74 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $213.64. 1,625,400 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,532,032. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $191.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $131.53. The company has a market cap of $30.09 billion, a PE ratio of 250.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.17. Ciena Corporation has a twelve month low of $49.21 and a twelve month high of $248.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.09.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.15. Ciena had a net margin of 2.59% and a return on equity of 8.38%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.54 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Ethic Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 49.4% in the first quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 12,809 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $788,000 after purchasing an additional 4,238 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Ciena by 9.5% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 48,976 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,960,000 after buying an additional 4,265 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its stake in Ciena by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 488,162 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,500,000 after buying an additional 5,682 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in Ciena by 153.2% in the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 49,184 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,941,000 after buying an additional 29,758 shares during the period. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC raised its position in Ciena by 125.8% during the 1st quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 10,770 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $651,000 after buying an additional 6,001 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on CIEN. Evercore ISI set a $240.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. B. Riley reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, December 12th. Wall Street Zen raised Ciena from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, December 13th. Zacks Research downgraded Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $237.50.

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.