Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN – Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock traders purchased 3,519 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 61% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,182 call options.
Insider Activity at Ciena
In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Institutional Trading of Ciena
Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its stake in Ciena by 4.8% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 403,490 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $24,851,000 after buying an additional 18,426 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 75.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 8,315 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $512,000 after purchasing an additional 3,584 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $148,348,000 after purchasing an additional 33,074 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp increased its position in Ciena by 68.5% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 7,988 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $492,000 after purchasing an additional 3,246 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.
Ciena Trading Up 6.2 %
Ciena (NYSE:CIEN – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ciena will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday. Evercore ISI lowered 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 note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.
View Our Latest Stock Report on CIEN
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.
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