Insider Selling: Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells $1,321,846.56 in Stock

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary Smith sold 2,952 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $447.78, for a total value of $1,321,846.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 246,030 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $110,167,313.40. The trade was a 1.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Ciena Trading Down 9.0%

NYSE CIEN traded down $40.15 on Tuesday, hitting $405.03. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,046,040 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,951,961. The firm has a market cap of $57.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 135.01 and a beta of 1.30. Ciena Corporation has a 52-week low of $84.41 and a 52-week high of $637.51. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $424.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $428.37. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 18.15% and a net margin of 7.87%.The firm had revenue of $1.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 5.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 57.8% in the 2nd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 71 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 2,100.0% in the first quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 88 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the period. Bogart Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 635.7% in the first quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 103 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 71.0% during the fourth quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 106 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Western Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on CIEN. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $675.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Rothschild & Co Redburn initiated coverage on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, May 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $416.00 price target on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Ciena from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $615.00 price objective on Ciena in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $525.00.

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.