Insider Selling: Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Sells 2,712 Shares of Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN traded down $0.30 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $46.95. The company had a trading volume of 577,211 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,863,071. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $47.89 and its 200 day moving average price is $49.58. The company has a current ratio of 3.88, a quick ratio of 2.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market cap of $6.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.44, a P/E/G ratio of 4.73 and a beta of 0.95. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $39.94 and a 52-week high of $63.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.12. Ciena had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 7.16%. The company had revenue of $910.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $895.80 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.59 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 1.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,084,694 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $712,903,000 after buying an additional 155,964 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. now owns 5,021,719 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $226,028,000 after buying an additional 368,897 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Ciena by 29.1% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,513,633 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $158,149,000 after buying an additional 791,215 shares during the period. Senvest Management LLC increased its position in shares of Ciena by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 2,952,264 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $132,881,000 after buying an additional 552,882 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Ciena by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,162,410 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $97,331,000 after buying an additional 332,181 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $52.50 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Raymond James lowered shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ciena from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $53.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.25.

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.