Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells $1,659,171.60 in Stock

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary Smith sold 2,952 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $562.05, for a total transaction of $1,659,171.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 272,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $153,163,683.45. This trade represents a 1.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Ciena Trading Up 5.9%

CIEN opened at $587.69 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $473.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $326.32. The company has a market cap of $83.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 374.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.81, a quick ratio of 2.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Ciena Corporation has a 1-year low of $70.77 and a 1-year high of $598.84.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 4.47%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.64 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 5.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,747,810,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Ciena by 30,114.5% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,870,677 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $671,365,000 after acquiring an additional 2,861,176 shares during the period. Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $292,310,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Ciena by 53.0% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,051,625 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $947,554,000 after acquiring an additional 1,404,132 shares during the period. Finally, Atreides Management LP bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $102,705,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $430.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Evercore set a $330.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $380.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $398.83.

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.