Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Invests $1.31 Million in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 15,389 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,308,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 925.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Ciena by 152.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth $59,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in Ciena by 241.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $88,000 after buying an additional 1,007 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.77.

Ciena Trading Down 3.0 %

NYSE CIEN opened at $87.44 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $43.30 and a one year high of $101.44. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $84.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $69.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.43 billion, a PE ratio of 153.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.88.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The business’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total value of $1,137,776.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,618,161.34. This represents a 3.10 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 57,581 shares of company stock valued at $4,875,548 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Company Profile

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.