Jason Phipps Sells 2,712 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $46.95 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $39.94 and a fifty-two week high of $63.24. The company has a market capitalization of $6.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.76 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $47.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.76 and a current ratio of 3.88.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, June 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.12. Ciena had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 7.16%. The business had revenue of $910.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $895.80 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.59 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CIEN shares. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Ciena from $52.50 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They set a “sell” rating and a $44.00 price target on the stock. Raymond James downgraded shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.25.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. lifted its position in Ciena by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. now owns 14,600 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $657,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Riverwater Partners LLC lifted its position in Ciena by 0.9% in the first quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 26,281 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,300,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its position in Ciena by 0.5% in the third quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 65,144 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,079,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. Watershed Asset Management L.L.C. lifted its position in Ciena by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Watershed Asset Management L.L.C. now owns 5,929 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $267,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the period. Finally, Mariner LLC lifted its position in Ciena by 3.2% in the third quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 14,345 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $678,000 after purchasing an additional 442 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

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.