Jason Phipps Sells 21,383 Shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Jason Phipps sold 21,383 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.89, for a total transaction of $5,300,631.87. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 91,765 shares in the company, valued at $22,747,625.85. This represents a 18.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $231.90 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $219.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $159.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.09. The company has a market capitalization of $32.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 272.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.13. Ciena Corporation has a 1-year low of $49.21 and a 1-year high of $261.13.

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

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter worth about $1,993,000. World Investment Advisors bought a new stake in Ciena during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $253,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its holdings in Ciena by 375.4% in the 2nd 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 buying an additional 975,792 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Ciena by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,243,053 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $426,420,000 after buying an additional 359,579 shares during the period. Finally, M & L Capital Management Ltd bought a new position in Ciena in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $714,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $138.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Evercore ISI set a $240.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Ciena from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Ciena from $175.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane set a $185.00 price objective on Ciena and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $241.00.

Key Ciena News

Here are the key news stories impacting Ciena this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Momentum and strong growth narrative — Zacks has highlighted CIEN as a momentum/growth pick (Rank #1 / Strong Buy), which can attract retail and momentum-oriented flows. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Underlying fundamentals and secular demand — recent coverage (including Yahoo/MarketBeat pieces) points to accelerating revenue, strong post-earnings guidance and secular demand for optical/network buildouts, supporting longer-term upside. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Peer comparison visibility — analyst and media comparisons versus peers (e.g., Forbes piece vs. Arista) can re‑ignite interest from investors repositioning within networking stocks. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst coverage breadth — multiple firms maintain a mix of Buy/Hold ratings and the consensus target is near current levels; that stabilizes expectations but doesn’t provide a decisive catalyst. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Hedge‑fund/coverage mentions — several hedge‑fund roundups include CIEN; increased visibility may help liquidity but no clear large-scale position shifts were reported. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst downgrade / thematic concern — Bank of America lowered its view on Ciena, flagging rising AI spending risks that could pressure networking capex and near-term demand, which is pressuring the stock. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Significant insider selling — recent SEC filings show SVP Jason Phipps sold ~21,383 shares (~$5.3M) and CEO Gary Smith sold 2,993 shares (~$741k) on Jan. 15; large insider sales often trigger short‑term selling pressure despite executives retaining large stakes. Read More. Read More.

Ciena Company Profile

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.