Oak Thistle LLC Acquires New Holdings in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 12,491 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,820,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bayforest Capital Ltd lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 34.7% in the 1st quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 636 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP raised its position in shares of Ciena by 107.5% during the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 372 shares during the period. Quarry LP lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 65.6% in the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,593 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $96,000 after buying an additional 631 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its position in Ciena by 82.5% in the 2nd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,203 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $98,000 after acquiring an additional 544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MAI Capital Management lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 21.5% in the second quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 1,455 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $118,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,863 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.14, for a total transaction of $262,943.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 43,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,143,965.34. This represents a 4.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total value of $1,185,555.32. Following the transaction, the director owned 54,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,653,914.88. This represents a 13.41% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 53,889 shares of company stock valued at $9,778,110. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Down 2.8%

CIEN stock opened at $203.88 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a current ratio of 2.73. The company has a market capitalization of $28.72 billion, a PE ratio of 239.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.17. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $191.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $131.53. Ciena Corporation has a one year low of $49.21 and a one year high of $248.00.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.59% and a return on equity of 8.38%. The company’s revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.54 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on CIEN shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ciena from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, December 13th. Northland Capmk lowered Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Ciena from $200.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Argus lifted their target price on Ciena from $135.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $237.50.

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.