Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Sells $478,046.72 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Jason Phipps sold 5,648 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total value of $478,046.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 109,878 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,300,073.92. The trade was a 4.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $81.91 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.14, a PEG ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. 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 $43.30 and a 12 month high of $91.82. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $75.69 and its 200-day moving average is $62.56.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its position in Ciena by 119.9% during 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 in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $94,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941,419 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter worth $57,861,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Ciena by 428.2% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 886,354 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $42,705,000 after purchasing an additional 718,551 shares during the period. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. acquired a new position in Ciena in the third quarter valued at about $40,416,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.