Gary Smith Sells 2,952 Shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary Smith sold 2,952 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $562.05, for a total transaction of $1,659,171.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 272,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $153,163,683.45. The trade was a 1.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN traded up $16.99 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $541.52. The company had a trading volume of 2,328,732 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,059,742. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $458.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $318.47. Ciena Corporation has a 1-year low of $70.77 and a 1-year high of $598.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.14 and a current ratio of 2.81. The company has a market capitalization of $76.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 344.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.18. Ciena had a net margin of 4.47% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.64 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Ciena Corporation will post 5.12 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,747,810,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Ciena by 23.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,462,840 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $941,451,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,787 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Ciena by 17.2% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,102,409 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,193,300,000 after purchasing an additional 750,128 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Ciena by 53.0% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,051,625 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $947,554,000 after purchasing an additional 1,404,132 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in Ciena by 10.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,495,795 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $284,313,000 after purchasing an additional 329,821 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CIEN. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $355.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $425.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $279.00 to $372.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $345.00 to $658.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $398.83.

Ciena Company Profile

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.