CIBC Asset Management Inc Raises Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 5.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,469 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc’s holdings in Ciena were worth $379,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Greenleaf Trust increased its stake in Ciena by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 4,978 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $422,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 3.8% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in 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. boosted its stake in Ciena by 59.2% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Down 2.7 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $84.15 on Monday. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $43.30 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $86.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $71.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 147.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88.

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 net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Northland Securities lifted their price target on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.77.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total transaction of $1,137,776.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 425,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. This trade represents a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176 over the last ninety days. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.