Transaction details
David M. Rothenstein, who serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at CIENA CORP (NASDAQ:CIEN), completed the sale of 2,500 shares of the company's common stock on February 17, 2026. The aggregate proceeds were approximately $750,498, executed at a weighted average price of $300.1992 per share. Individual sale prices fell between $288.71 and $306.54.
The disposition was carried out under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan that Rothenstein established on October 10, 2025. Following this transaction, Rothenstein's direct holdings in Ciena total 199,694 shares, a figure that the company reports includes unvested Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) and Performance Stock Units (PSUs).
Context and market backdrop
Ciena, a company focused on networking systems and software, has seen its shares trading near all-time highs in recent months. InvestingPro tracks insider transactions as part of its broader analysis, noting that such filings can offer signals about the views of company executives through their trading activity.
Divergent analyst views
Street sentiment toward Ciena has been mixed. Stifel recently raised its price target to $280 from $270 and maintained a Buy rating. Stifel cites expectations for increased networking intensity driven by advancements in artificial intelligence and reasoning networks as a rationale for the higher target and continued positive stance.
By contrast, Bank of America downgraded Ciena to Neutral and removed its price target. BofA pointed to concerns about a high valuation and peak margins, and flagged slower order and backlog trends as reasons for the downgrade. The bank described the stock's risk/reward as unfavorable and noted a lack of pure play optionality on AI deployments. At the same time, BofA acknowledged that key cloud leaders have strong deployment plans, which it said supports ongoing demand for networking equipment.
What this means
The insider sale is a discrete, documented transaction carried out under an approved trading plan, occurring amid elevated share prices and a polarized analyst backdrop. Investors monitoring internal trading and analyst revisions have multiple data points - transaction timing, the scale of ownership post-sale, and split analyst assessments - to consider as they evaluate Ciena's near-term market positioning.