CIENA Corporation Lobbying and Insider Trading Activity

CIENA Corporation recently disclosed $130,000 in lobbying expenditures in Q2 2025. The lobbying focused on issues such as subsea cable resilience, permitting and licensing reform for submarine cables, and export controls on submarine cables. Meanwhile, insiders have traded CIEN stock 34 times in the past 6 months, with most being sales. Institutional investors have also made significant changes to their CIEN holdings, with some adding large amounts of shares to their portfolios.

Ciena Corporation (CIEN) recently disclosed $130,000 in lobbying expenditures for the second quarter of 2025, as per a new Lobbying Disclosure Act filing. The lobbying efforts focused on critical issues such as subsea cable resilience and security, permitting and licensing reform for submarine cables, and export controls on submarine cables [1]. Additionally, the lobbying activities covered AI infrastructure and connectivity, Build America Buy America requirements on revised broadband subsidy rules, R&D expenses in 2024 revised tax bills, access to external markets, and tariffs, as well as access to loans for 5G networks [2].

The insider trading activity for CIEN stock has been notable over the past six months. There have been 34 trades, all of which were sales, with no purchases. Key executives have sold a significant number of shares:
- Gary B. Smith (President, CEO) sold 74,800 shares for an estimated $5,763,817 [2].
- Jason Phipps (SVP Global Sales and Marketing) sold 21,213 shares for an estimated $1,318,177 [2].
- David M. Rothenstein (SVP and Chief Strategy Officer) sold 10,000 shares for an estimated $706,039 [2].
- Sheela Kosaraju (SVP and General Counsel) sold 4,638 shares for an estimated $353,916 [2].
- Dino Diperna (SVP Global R&D) sold 2,236 shares for an estimated $171,983 [2].
- Joseph Cumerello (SVP, General Mgr. Blue Planet) sold 2,044 shares for an estimated $166,862 [2].
- Brodie Gage (SVP Global Products & Supply) sold 2,100 shares for an estimated $157,223 [2].

Institutional investors have also made significant changes to their CIEN holdings. Price T. Rowe Associates, Inc. /MD/ removed 3,456,204 shares (-74.7%) from their portfolio in Q1 2025, for an estimated $208,858,407 [2]. SLATE PATH CAPITAL LP removed 2,179,600 shares (-100.0%) from their portfolio in Q1 2025, for an estimated $131,713,228 [2]. William Blair Investment Management, LLC added 2,005,631 shares (+inf%) to their portfolio in Q1 2025, for an estimated $121,200,281 [2]. Capital World Investors added 1,853,009 shares (+inf%) to their portfolio in Q1 2025, for an estimated $111,977,333 [2]. Point72 Asset Management, L.P. added 1,736,443 shares (+681.5%) to their portfolio in Q1 2025, for an estimated $104,933,250 [2]. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans removed 1,503,323 shares (-57.5%) from their portfolio in Q1 2025, for an estimated $90,845,808 [2]. FIL LTD removed 1,444,991 shares (-100.0%) from their portfolio in Q1 2025, for an estimated $87,320,806 [2].

Wall Street analysts have issued a mix of ratings for CIEN stock. Seven firms have issued buy ratings, while none have issued sell ratings [2]. Recent analyst ratings include:
- Wolfe Research issued an "Outperform" rating on 07/08/2025 [2].
- B. Riley Securities issued a "Buy" rating on 06/06/2025 [2].
- Needham issued a "Buy" rating on 06/06/2025 [2].
- JP Morgan issued an "Overweight" rating on 05/27/2025 [2].
- Citigroup issued a "Buy" rating on 04/14/2025 [2].
- Barclays issued an "Overweight" rating on 03/12/2025 [2].
- Northland Capital Markets issued an "Outperform" rating on 03/12/2025 [2].

Multiple analysts have also issued price targets for CIEN. The median target is $78.0, with recent targets ranging from $70.0 to $90.0 [2].

References:
[1] https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/lobbying-update-130000-ciena-corporation-formerly-ciena-corporation-broadband-group
[2] https://www.quiverquant.com/news/Lobbying+Update%3A+%24130%2C000+of+CIENA+CORPORATION+%28FORMERLY+CIENA+CORPORATION+BROADBAND+GROUP%29+lobbying+was+just+disclosed