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

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.54, for a total value of $404,872.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 375,680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,367,987.20. This trade represents a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Ciena Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of Ciena stock traded up $1.47 during trading on Thursday, reaching $60.34. The company had a trading volume of 1,215,505 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,009,413. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. The company has a market cap of $8.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 106.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.15. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $43.30 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $69.87 and its 200-day moving average is $73.87.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Ritholtz Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $245,000. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in Ciena by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,459 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $887,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $421,000. Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at $755,000. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 17.4% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 38,350 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,252,000 after acquiring an additional 5,684 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Ciena from $88.00 to $76.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Northland Securities raised Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $60.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays set a $100.00 target price on Ciena and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.69.

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.