Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Falls 7% – Time to Sell?

Shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) were down 7% during mid-day trading on Friday. The stock traded as low as $330.99 and last traded at $331.7330. Approximately 3,184,229 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 10% from the average session volume of 2,901,611 shares. The stock had previously closed at $356.52.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on CIEN. Argus set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 10th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Ciena from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Evercore upgraded shares of Ciena from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, September 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Ciena from $635.00 to $605.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 4th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, September 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $506.11.

Ciena Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $47.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 74.05, a P/E/G ratio of 4.62 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $376.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $440.27. The company has a quick ratio of 3.17, a current ratio of 3.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 3rd. The communications equipment provider reported $2.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by $0.38. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 25.33% and a net margin of 10.87%. The business’s revenue was up 37.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 6.00 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, CFO Marc Graff sold 4,995 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $430.72, for a total transaction of $2,151,446.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 107,519 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,310,583.68. This trade represents a 4.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Thomas Nevens sold 3,738 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $359.04, for a total value of $1,342,091.52. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,289 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,258,002.56. This trade represents a 37.28% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 31,862 shares of company stock valued at $12,017,320 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. TKG Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,244,000. Swiss National Bank grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 7.0% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 413,332 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $160,468,000 after acquiring an additional 26,900 shares in the last quarter. Wealth High Governance Capital Ltda bought a new position in Ciena during the first quarter worth about $10,883,000. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in Ciena by 983.2% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 17,168 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $6,665,000 after acquiring an additional 15,583 shares during the period. Finally, Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its position in Ciena by 126.0% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 8,413 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,968,000 after acquiring an additional 4,691 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Company Profile

Ciena Corporation is a networking technology company that provides communications infrastructure, software and services for telecommunications providers, cloud operators, enterprises, governments and research institutions. Its solutions are designed to help organizations build, manage and automate high-capacity networks that support applications such as cloud computing, broadband connectivity, data center interconnection and 5G services.

The company’s portfolio includes optical networking systems and coherent optical technologies, routing and switching platforms, broadband access solutions, network management software and professional services.