Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells $1,309,748.00 in Stock

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.61, for a total value of $1,309,748.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 254,870 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,090,510.70. The trade was a 2.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN traded up $5.43 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $201.16. The company had a trading volume of 1,679,771 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,483,070. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $179.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $122.75. The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 3.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 206.00, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.17. Ciena Corporation has a 52-week low of $49.21 and a 52-week high of $214.17.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Ciena had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 3.10%.The firm had revenue of $844.44 million for the quarter. On average, analysts expect that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Lone Pine Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth about $292,310,000. Atreides Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at $102,705,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Ciena by 23.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,462,840 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $941,451,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,787 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the 1st quarter worth about $70,065,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 2,174.2% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,143,855 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $166,625,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,557 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on Ciena from $130.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $120.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $175.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $141.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $120.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $163.53.

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.