Insider Selling: Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Sells $311,815.00 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at $17,194,102.73. The trade was a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Ciena Stock Up 1.9 %

Ciena stock opened at $87.38 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $70.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $58.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 92.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $91.82.

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

Ciena announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 119.9% in the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,943,146 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 7,767.2% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $94,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941,419 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in Ciena in the 3rd quarter worth about $57,861,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Ciena by 428.2% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 886,354 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $42,705,000 after buying an additional 718,551 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,416,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CIEN. Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Northland Securities increased their price target on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

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.