Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Ciena (NYSE:CIEN)

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders acquired 3,519 call options on the company. This is an increase of 61% compared to the average daily volume of 2,182 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on CIEN shares. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday. Barclays lifted their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday. BNP Paribas cut Ciena from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and raised their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, 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. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $77.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction 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 approximately $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its stake in Ciena by 119.9% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $260,054,000 after buying an additional 2,943,146 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 7,767.2% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $94,742,000 after acquiring an additional 1,941,419 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter worth about $57,861,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 428.2% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 886,354 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $42,705,000 after purchasing an additional 718,551 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,416,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Trading Up 6.2 %

Shares of Ciena stock traded up $5.20 during trading on Friday, reaching $89.72. 6,668,578 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,848,684. Ciena has a 1 year low of $42.20 and a 1 year high of $91.25. The firm has a market cap of $12.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 157.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. 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's fifty day moving average is $68.91 and its 200 day moving average is $57.81.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share 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 company 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 EPS. The business's revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ciena will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan 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 reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.