Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith Sells 6,800 Shares of Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.90, for a total value of $488,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 368,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,522,472. The trade was a 1.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $72.86 on Tuesday. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $44.69 and a 52-week high of $101.44. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $64.45 and its 200 day moving average is $73.94. The company has a market cap of $10.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 127.83, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.11.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,316,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,299,004,000 after purchasing an additional 139,941 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,236,920 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $444,143,000 after buying an additional 17,447 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Ciena by 195.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $392,345,000 after acquiring an additional 3,062,883 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,227,020 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,684,000 after acquiring an additional 49,996 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,419,947 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $205,301,000 after acquiring an additional 11,933 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the topic of a number of research reports. B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $89.00 price objective (down previously from $97.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Ciena and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Ciena from $88.00 to $76.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Northland Securities upgraded Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.62.

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.