Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Gary Smith Sells 2,952 Shares

Key Points

• Ciena CEO Gary Smith sold 2,952 shares on May 1 at an average price of $537.74 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, generating about $1.59M and reducing his stake by 1.06% to 275,461 shares (≈$148.1M).
• Ciena reported an EPS beat ($1.35 vs. $1.17) and 33.1% year-over-year revenue growth, and analysts remain broadly positive with a "Moderate Buy" consensus and a $358.94 average target after multiple price-target upgrades.

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) CEO Gary Smith sold 2,952 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $537.74, for a total transaction of $1,587,408.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 275,461 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $148,126,398.14. The trade was a 1.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Ciena Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of CIEN traded up $2.66 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $537.95. The stock had a trading volume of 1,197,002 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,191,845. Ciena Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $70.67 and a fifty-two week high of $550.00. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $414.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $291.20. The firm has a market cap of $76.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 342.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.81, a quick ratio of 2.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.40 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 4.47% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 5.1 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SmartHarvest Portfolios LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 1.8% during the first quarter. SmartHarvest Portfolios LLC now owns 1,142 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $443,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. grew its holdings in Ciena by 9.5% during the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 358 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $139,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,107 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $1,194,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 71.0% during the fourth quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 106 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in Ciena by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,629 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $381,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Ciena from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 6th. Wolfe Research reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Ciena from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Ciena from $320.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Ciena from $279.00 to $372.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $358.94.

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation NYSE: CIEN is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena's product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.

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