Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Sells $478,046.72 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Jason Phipps sold 5,648 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total value of $478,046.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 109,878 shares in the company, valued at $9,300,073.92. The trade was a 4.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Ciena Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $82.22 on Thursday. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $91.82. The business has a 50 day moving average of $76.04 and a 200-day moving average of $62.69. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market cap of $11.68 billion, a PE ratio of 87.47, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the period. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena by 152.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 241.5% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.