Insider Selling: Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells 13,600 Shares of Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the company’s 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 in the company, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. The trade was a 3.10 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $82.22 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $91.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $76.04 and a 200 day moving average of $62.69.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 quarter last year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Fulton Bank N.A. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 8,279 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $702,000 after purchasing an additional 861 shares during the period. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at $235,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 27.7% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,109 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $179,000 after buying an additional 458 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its holdings in Ciena by 4.8% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 403,490 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $24,851,000 after acquiring an additional 18,426 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

Ciena Company Profile

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.