Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Sold by Trexquant Investment LP

Trexquant Investment LP cut its holdings in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 23.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 111,154 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 33,838 shares during the period. Trexquant Investment LP owned about 0.08% of Ciena worth $5,003,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Ciena by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,084,694 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $712,903,000 after acquiring an additional 155,964 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Ciena by 4.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,940,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $422,535,000 after acquiring an additional 371,041 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in Ciena by 8.6% in the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 4,652,822 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $219,893,000 after acquiring an additional 366,647 shares during the last quarter. Senvest Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ciena by 5.9% in the third quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 2,399,382 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $113,395,000 after acquiring an additional 132,770 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Ciena by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,162,410 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $97,331,000 after acquiring an additional 332,181 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $49.56 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.17 billion, a PE ratio of 32.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 1.00. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $39.94 and a one year high of $63.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.29 and a quick ratio of 3.12. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $47.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $48.98.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.18. Ciena had a net margin of 5.22% and a return on equity of 9.92%. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.48 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CIEN has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $56.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They set a “sell” rating and a $44.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.79.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.19, for a total transaction of $175,665.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 230,001 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,543,750.19. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $26,442.13. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 41,372 shares in the company, valued at $2,052,464.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.19, for a total transaction of $175,665.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 230,001 shares in the company, valued at $11,543,750.19. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,473 shares of company stock worth $1,715,991. 0.83% 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.