Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Ciena Call Options (NYSE:CIEN)

Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders bought 3,297 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 50% compared to the average volume of 2,191 call options.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.19, for a total transaction of $175,665.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 230,001 shares in the company, valued at $11,543,750.19. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.80, for a total value of $186,636.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 385,109 shares in the company, valued at $17,252,883.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.19, for a total transaction of $175,665.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 230,001 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,543,750.19. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 107,189 shares of company stock worth $5,754,880 over the last quarter. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda bought a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the first quarter worth $33,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter worth $61,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp bought a new position in Ciena in the third quarter worth $101,000. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co lifted its position in Ciena by 74.5% in the third quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 2,999 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $142,000 after purchasing an additional 1,280 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. BNP Paribas began coverage on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price target for the company. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $44.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.79.

Ciena Trading Up 1.9 %

NYSE:CIEN opened at $44.75 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $51.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $48.20. Ciena has a 52 week low of $39.94 and a 52 week high of $63.24. The company has a market capitalization of $6.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 3.12 and a current ratio of 4.29.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 9.92% and a net margin of 5.22%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.48 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Ciena will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.