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

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.46, for a total value of $1,587,528.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 391,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $91,384,882.02. The trade was a 1.71% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Ciena Stock Down 0.3%

NYSE CIEN opened at $238.31 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $203.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $142.02. Ciena Corporation has a one year low of $49.21 and a one year high of $248.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a current ratio of 2.73. The company has a market capitalization of $33.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 280.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.17.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.15. Ciena had a net margin of 2.59% and a return on equity of 8.38%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.54 earnings per share. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. World Investment Advisors bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter worth $253,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its stake in Ciena by 375.4% in the second quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,235,696 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $100,499,000 after purchasing an additional 975,792 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Ciena by 7.4% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,243,053 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $426,420,000 after purchasing an additional 359,579 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC raised its holdings in Ciena by 516.6% in the first quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 18,719 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,131,000 after purchasing an additional 15,683 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 322.8% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 34,035 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,912,000 after buying an additional 25,986 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on Ciena to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on Ciena from $175.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Ciena from $200.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Barclays raised their price target on Ciena from $138.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Ciena and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $237.50.

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena’s product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.