Joseph Cumello Sells 1,289 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN stock traded up $0.49 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $67.07. 1,121,769 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,800,899. 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 stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $64.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $54.96. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $42.20 and a one year high of $73.47. The company has a market cap of $9.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 71.35, a P/E/G ratio of 5.46 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 3.8% in the 3rd 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. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 2.4% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $635,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 5.4% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $380,000 after buying an additional 318 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CIEN. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of 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. 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 report on Tuesday, October 15th. Bank of America reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a "market perform" rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $63.08.

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.