Insider Selling: Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) CEO Sells 6,800 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Ciena CEO Gary Smith sold 6,800 shares at an average price of $92.93, totaling approximately $631,924, which represents a 2.18% decrease in his ownership stake.
• The stock's recent performance was notable, with shares trading up $1.55 to $95.14, and a trading volume significantly above its average.
• Analysts have set new price targets for Ciena, with JPMorgan increasing its target from $83 to $105, indicating strong expectations for the company's future performance.

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) CEO Gary Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total transaction of $631,924.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 305,157 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,358,240.01. This trade represents a 2.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CIEN traded up $1.55 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $95.14. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,721,083 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,608,384. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $87.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.98. Ciena Corporation has a one year low of $49.21 and a one year high of $101.44. The company has a current ratio of 3.40, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 132.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.16.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.09 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.46% and a return on equity of 5.08%. Ciena's revenue was up 23.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. Ciena has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ciena

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Ciena by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,693 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in Ciena by 15.4% during the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,147 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd grew its position in Ciena by 34.7% during the 1st quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 636 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in Ciena by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 534 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in Ciena by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 38,910 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $2,351,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $83.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Northland Securities set a $100.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Finally, B. Riley reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $90.00 price target (up previously from $89.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $88.08.

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.

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