Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Ciena Call Options (NYSE:CIEN)

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) saw some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 3,297 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 50% compared to the average volume of 2,191 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total value of $26,442.13. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 41,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,052,464.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.80, for a total value of $186,636.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 385,109 shares in the company, valued at $17,252,883.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total value of $26,442.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 41,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,052,464.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 107,189 shares of company stock valued at $5,754,880. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the 1st quarter worth $33,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth $61,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp acquired a new position in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $101,000. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co lifted its holdings in Ciena by 74.5% during the 3rd quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 2,999 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $142,000 after buying an additional 1,280 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $44.75 on Wednesday. Ciena has a twelve month low of $39.94 and a twelve month high of $63.24. The company has a current ratio of 4.29, a quick ratio of 3.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $48.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.47 billion, a PE ratio of 29.06, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.99.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 9.92% and a net margin of 5.22%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.48 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on CIEN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Ciena from $56.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. BNP Paribas began coverage on Ciena in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com raised Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Citigroup began coverage on Ciena in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They set a “sell” rating and a $44.00 target price for the company. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.79.

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.