Thomas Michael Nevens Sells 8,554 Shares of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 8,554 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.66, for a total transaction of $1,921,741.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,422 shares in the company, valued at $2,116,746.52. This trade represents a 47.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN traded down $6.58 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $203.26. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,694,927 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,532,818. Ciena Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $49.21 and a fifty-two week high of $248.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a current ratio of 2.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 239.38, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $190.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $131.02.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.59% and a return on equity of 8.38%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.54 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on CIEN. BNP Paribas Exane raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Ciena to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Evercore ISI set a $240.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $270.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $175.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $237.50.

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.