Short Interest in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Drops By 19.4%

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,940,000 shares, a drop of 19.4% from the January 31st total of 4,890,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,370,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.7 days. Approximately 2.8% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. This represents a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total transaction of $1,137,776.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 425,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. The trade was a 3.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 56,642 shares of company stock valued at $4,818,176. 0.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Ciena by 195.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $392,345,000 after acquiring an additional 3,062,883 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc raised its holdings in Ciena by 113.7% in the 4th quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 2,169,406 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $183,987,000 after acquiring an additional 1,154,260 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $57,861,000. Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in Ciena by 4,215.9% in the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 899,828 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $76,314,000 after acquiring an additional 878,979 shares during the period. Finally, Stephens Investment Management Group LLC bought a new stake in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at $56,997,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities increased their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.77.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN traded up $0.01 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $74.70. The stock had a trading volume of 2,446,814 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,934,964. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $85.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.65. Ciena has a one year low of $43.30 and a one year high of $101.44. The firm has a market cap of $10.65 billion, a PE ratio of 131.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Ciena Company Profile

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.