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

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary Smith sold 2,952 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $299.51, for a total transaction of $884,153.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 298,988 shares in the company, valued at $89,549,895.88. The trade was a 0.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE CIEN traded up $0.07 during trading on Thursday, reaching $311.03. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 502,653 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,582,171. Ciena Corporation has a twelve month low of $49.21 and a twelve month high of $317.28. The firm has a market cap of $44.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 368.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.13. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $249.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $185.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a current ratio of 2.73.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.59% and a return on equity of 8.38%. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.54 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CIEN. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of Ciena to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Evercore set a $330.00 price target on Ciena in a report on Thursday. B. Riley Financial restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley set a $213.00 price target on Ciena in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Ciena to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $247.67.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in Ciena by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,107 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,194,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 71.0% in the 4th quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 106 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,629 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $381,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Ciena by 45.3% during the fourth quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 154 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its stake in Ciena by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 710 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $166,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.