Insider Selling: Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells $443,224.00 in Stock

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.18, for a total transaction of $443,224.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 391,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,534,199.82. This trade represents a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $65.47 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 114.86, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $80.57 and its 200-day moving average is $73.48. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $101.44.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CIEN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays set a $100.00 price target on shares of Ciena and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and issued a $89.00 price target (down from $97.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.38.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,334,290,000 after buying an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,316,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,299,004,000 after buying an additional 139,941 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,236,920 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $444,143,000 after buying an additional 17,447 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 195.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $392,345,000 after buying an additional 3,062,883 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $273,427,000 after buying an additional 53,078 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.