Insider Selling: Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Sells 5,648 Shares of Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) SVP Jason Phipps sold 5,648 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total value of $478,046.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 109,878 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,300,073.92. This trade represents a 4.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Ciena Stock Up 0.9 %

CIEN traded up $0.79 during trading on Monday, reaching $84.40. The stock had a trading volume of 1,651,590 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,916,630. The stock's 50 day moving average is $75.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $62.32. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a market capitalization of $11.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.79, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $43.30 and a one year high of $91.82.

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

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 3.8% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 2.4% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $635,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. 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 valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 5.4% during the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $380,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CIEN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Northland Securities increased their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI lowered Ciena from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays increased their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $77.00.

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.