Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Director Bruce Claflin Sells 2,857 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Director Bruce Claflin sold 2,857 Ciena shares at an average price of $355.91, generating approximately $1.02 million. The sale reduced his direct ownership by 25.66% to 8,279 shares.
• Ciena shares recently traded at $343.71, down $13.20, and remain well below their 50-day and 200-day moving averages. The stock has a market capitalization of about $48.7 billion and a P/E ratio of 76.72.
• Ciena exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting $2.11 in EPS and $1.67 billion in revenue, with revenue up 37% year over year. Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and an average price target of $492.68, while institutional investors own 91.99% of the stock.

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) Director Bruce Claflin sold 2,857 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $355.91, for a total transaction of $1,016,834.87. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 8,279 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,946,578.89. This trade represents a 25.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock traded down $13.20 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $343.71. The company had a trading volume of 1,830,126 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,873,838. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $375.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $439.90. Ciena Corporation has a 1 year low of $143.00 and a 1 year high of $637.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 3.80 and a quick ratio of 3.17. The company has a market capitalization of $48.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 76.72, a P/E/G ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.30.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 3rd. The communications equipment provider reported $2.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.38. Ciena had a return on equity of 25.33% and a net margin of 10.87%.The business had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.35 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 37.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 6 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Weiss Ratings cut Ciena from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Ciena from $635.00 to $605.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 4th. Evercore upgraded shares of Ciena from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $550.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, September 21st. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and set a $525.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $492.68.

Institutional Trading of Ciena

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in Ciena by 30,114.5% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,870,677 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $671,365,000 after purchasing an additional 2,861,176 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,687,437 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $627,567,000 after buying an additional 145,948 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Ciena by 95.6% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,236,835 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $523,129,000 after buying an additional 1,092,980 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Ciena by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 1,868,881 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $437,075,000 after buying an additional 31,900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atreides Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Atreides Management LP now owns 1,428,230 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $334,020,000 after buying an additional 27,466 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Company Profile

Ciena Corporation NYSE: CIEN is a networking technology company that provides hardware, software and services for communications networks. Its solutions help service providers, cloud companies, enterprises and government organizations build, manage and automate high-capacity networks that support broadband, cloud computing, data center interconnection and other digital services.

The company's product portfolio includes optical networking systems, coherent optical technology, routers, switches, network control and automation software, and network management tools.

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