Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Sells $135,278.00 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock traded down $0.14 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $61.45. 1,728,380 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,782,814. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $39.94 and a 52 week high of $63.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.09, a PEG ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $54.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $50.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.36 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CIEN. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. B. Riley decreased their target price on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Riverwater Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.9% in the first quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 26,281 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,300,000 after acquiring an additional 237 shares in the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 4.6% during the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Ciena by 17.4% in the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 3,465 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $167,000 after buying an additional 514 shares in the last quarter. Lumbard & Kellner LLC raised its position in shares of Ciena by 0.9% in the second quarter. Lumbard & Kellner LLC now owns 65,799 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,170,000 after buying an additional 612 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 2.1% in the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 30,862 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,487,000 after buying an additional 632 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.