Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Ciena (NYSE:CIEN)

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) was the target of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Traders bought 2,594 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 76% compared to the typical volume of 1,475 call options.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,368,269.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at $10,368,269.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 119.9% during the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $260,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,943,146 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. now owns 5,021,719 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $226,028,000 after purchasing an additional 368,897 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 29.1% in the 4th 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. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Ciena by 24.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $130,392,000 after buying an additional 523,313 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Ciena by 1,944.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $101,986,000 after buying an additional 1,961,513 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $54.93 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.89 billion, a PE ratio of 52.82, a PEG ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 3.88 and a quick ratio of 2.76. Ciena has a one year low of $39.94 and a one year high of $63.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 7.16%. The company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CIEN. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Ciena from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $52.50 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $57.67.

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.