Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Sells $5,300,631.87 in Stock

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Jason Phipps sold 21,383 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.89, for a total value of $5,300,631.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 91,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,747,625.85. The trade was a 18.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN traded down $1.11 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $242.31. The stock had a trading volume of 1,198,943 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,492,151. The stock has a market cap of $34.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 285.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $218.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $158.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a current ratio of 2.73. Ciena Corporation has a 12-month low of $49.21 and a 12-month high of $261.13.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 8.38% and a net margin of 2.59%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.54 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Community Bank N.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Mather Group LLC. bought a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in Ciena by 50.4% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 200 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 104.0% in the 3rd quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 204 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Salomon & Ludwin LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CIEN shares. Stifel Nicolaus set a $270.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Northland Securities set a $190.00 price objective on Ciena and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. UBS Group raised their target price on Ciena from $120.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Evercore ISI set a $240.00 price target on Ciena in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $138.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $237.50.

About Ciena

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.