Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Short Interest Update

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,750,000 shares, a growth of 19.0% from the August 15th total of 4,830,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,560,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.7 days. Approximately 4.1% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,368,269.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1,171.4% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 44,854 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,161,000 after purchasing an additional 41,326 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $661,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 949,476 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $42,736,000 after buying an additional 18,860 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Ciena by 13.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,499,035 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $72,223,000 after buying an additional 181,358 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Fund Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Ciena by 67.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Fund Management S.A. now owns 225,172 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,135,000 after acquiring an additional 90,610 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. B. Riley cut their target price on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Raymond James lowered shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.15.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN stock traded up $0.15 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $56.45. 1,637,088 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,764,228. Ciena has a fifty-two week low of $39.94 and a fifty-two week high of $63.24. The firm has a market cap of $8.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.27, a P/E/G ratio of 6.86 and a beta of 0.94. 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 firm has a 50 day moving average of $51.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $49.80.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.15 EPS for the current year.

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.