Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells $884,153.52 in Stock

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary Smith sold 2,952 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.51, for a total value of $884,153.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 298,988 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $89,549,895.88. The trade was a 0.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN traded up $0.07 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $311.03. 502,653 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,582,171. 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 Corporation has a 12 month low of $49.21 and a 12 month high of $317.28. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $249.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $185.68. The stock has a market cap of $44.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 368.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.13.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.54 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,993,000. Convergence Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,726,000. World Investment Advisors acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 2nd quarter worth $253,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Ciena by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,243,053 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $426,420,000 after acquiring an additional 359,579 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 38.7% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 112,011 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $16,317,000 after purchasing an additional 31,225 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CIEN shares. Zacks Research cut Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Raymond James Financial set a $240.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Evercore set a $330.00 price target on Ciena in a report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ciena in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $260.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $247.67.

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena’s product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.