David M. Rothenstein Sells 3,500 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. The trade was a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Ciena Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $85.79 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $70.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.39 billion, a PE ratio of 91.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. 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 $43.12 and a 12 month high of $91.82.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 119.9% in the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after purchasing an additional 2,943,146 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Ciena by 7,767.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $94,742,000 after acquiring an additional 1,941,419 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at about $57,861,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 428.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 718,551 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the third quarter worth approximately $40,416,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on CIEN shares. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.