Gary B. Smith Sells 13,600 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total transaction of $1,137,776.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. The trade was a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $81.91 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.64 billion, a PE ratio of 87.14, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $75.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $62.56. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $43.30 and a 52 week high of $91.82. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 7th. BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE increased its holdings in Ciena by 2.4% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after buying an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in Ciena by 925.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $380,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.