Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary Smith Sells 2,952 Shares of Stock

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary Smith sold 2,952 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.05, for a total value of $1,659,171.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 272,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $153,163,683.45. The trade was a 1.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Ciena Stock Up 3.2%

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $541.52 on Wednesday. Ciena Corporation has a 1 year low of $70.77 and a 1 year high of $598.84. The firm has a market cap of $76.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 344.92, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.14 and a current ratio of 2.81. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $463.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $320.95.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 4.47%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.64 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Corporation will post 5.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,747,810,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Ciena by 23.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,462,840 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $941,451,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219,787 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Ciena by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,102,409 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,193,300,000 after acquiring an additional 750,128 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Ciena by 53.0% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,051,625 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $947,554,000 after acquiring an additional 1,404,132 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Ciena by 10.4% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,495,795 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $284,313,000 after acquiring an additional 329,821 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Rothschild & Co Redburn assumed coverage on Ciena in a research note on Friday, May 1st. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $416.00 price target for the company. Zacks Research upgraded Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Ciena from $380.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Ciena from $345.00 to $658.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Ciena from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $398.83.

Ciena Company Profile

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena’s product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.