3,863 Shares in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Acquired by Choreo LLC

Choreo LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 3,863 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $328,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CIEN. Greenleaf Trust grew its holdings in Ciena by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 4,978 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $422,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Ciena by 3.8% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 2.4% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 59.2% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE CIEN opened at $88.65 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $12.60 billion, a PE ratio of 155.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.88. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $43.30 and a one year high of $101.44. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $85.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. This represents a 3.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 56,292 shares of company stock valued at $4,786,620. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.77.

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.