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

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 $5,042,121.12. This trade represents a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $82.22 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $76.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $62.69. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $43.30 and a fifty-two week high of $91.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.68 billion, a PE ratio of 87.47, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. 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 (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock 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 purchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI downgraded 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. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in 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 buying an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 152.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 118.9% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $76,000 after acquiring an additional 854 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.