Gary B. Smith Sells 13,600 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,618,161.34. This represents a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Ciena Stock Down 3.1 %

Shares of CIEN opened at $81.91 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $75.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.56. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $91.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89.

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

Ciena declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 2,943,146 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Ciena by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $273,427,000 after buying an additional 53,078 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Ciena by 24.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $130,392,000 after buying an additional 523,313 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Ciena by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $148,348,000 after acquiring an additional 33,074 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on CIEN. Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has an average 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.