Merit Financial Group LLC Purchases 587 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Merit Financial Group LLC grew its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 11.8% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 5,547 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 587 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $335,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,316,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,299,004,000 after acquiring an additional 139,941 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its position in Ciena by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,236,920 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $444,143,000 after purchasing an additional 17,447 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Ciena by 195.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $392,345,000 after purchasing an additional 3,062,883 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Ciena by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,227,020 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $273,684,000 after purchasing an additional 49,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Ciena by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,419,947 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $205,301,000 after purchasing an additional 11,933 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on CIEN. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Barclays set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Ciena and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ciena from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 7th. Evercore ISI restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $83.15.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN opened at $72.24 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $70.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $75.93. 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 52 week low of $44.89 and a 52 week high of $101.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.27 billion, a PE ratio of 126.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.12.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.08). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. Ciena’s revenue was up 23.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.67, for a total value of $27,534.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 46,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,637,150.11. The trade was a 0.75% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.18, for a total transaction of $443,224.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 391,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,534,199.82. This trade represents a 1.71% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 51,788 shares of company stock valued at $3,431,319 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Ciena 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.