Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells $186,636.80 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.80, for a total transaction of $186,636.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 385,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,252,883.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Ciena Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $43.57 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $48.17. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $39.94 and a 52-week high of $63.24. The firm has a market cap of $6.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 4.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.18. Ciena had a net margin of 5.22% and a return on equity of 9.92%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.48 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on CIEN. BNP Paribas began coverage on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “sell” rating and a $44.00 target price for the company. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.79.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the 1st quarter valued at about $33,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 63.9% in the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 849 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 331 shares during the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Ciena in the 1st quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $61,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.