Bruce L. Claflin Sells 16,912 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. The trade was a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Ciena Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE:CIEN opened at $82.22 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $91.82. The stock has a market cap of $11.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.47, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $76.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $62.83.

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

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Northland Securities upped their price target on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Ciena in the third quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake 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 worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 152.8% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP lifted its position in Ciena by 118.9% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 854 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.