Gary Smith Sells 2,952 Shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary Smith sold 2,952 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.60, for a total transaction of $784,051.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 301,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $80,195,264. The trade was a 0.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Ciena Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $253.23 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $232.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $172.01. Ciena Corporation has a 52 week low of $49.21 and a 52 week high of $285.97. The stock has a market cap of $35.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 297.92, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 2.09, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on Ciena to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Argus upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $135.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Ciena to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Raymond James Financial set a $240.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $120.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $241.67.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Ciena by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,088,445 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,227,143,000 after purchasing an additional 103,199 shares during the period. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,747,810,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 23.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,462,840 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $941,451,000 after buying an additional 1,219,787 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 10.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,495,795 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $284,313,000 after acquiring an additional 329,821 shares during the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 35.0% during the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,708,540 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $220,286,000 after acquiring an additional 702,909 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.