Insider Selling: Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Director Sells 16,912 Shares of Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at $5,042,121.12. This trade represents a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN opened at $82.39 on Friday. 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $76.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.83. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $43.30 and a one year high of $91.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89.

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

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding 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 often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on CIEN. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday. Citigroup raised 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. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Fulton Bank N.A. grew its holdings in Ciena by 11.6% during the 4th quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 8,279 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $702,000 after acquiring an additional 861 shares during the period. Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter worth $235,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Ciena by 27.7% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,109 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $179,000 after purchasing an additional 458 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in Ciena by 925.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its holdings in Ciena by 4.8% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 403,490 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $24,851,000 after buying an additional 18,426 shares during the last quarter. 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.