Veracity Capital LLC Takes $474,000 Position in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Veracity Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 3,253 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $474,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bayforest Capital Ltd raised its stake in Ciena by 34.7% during the first quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 636 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 107.5% during the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 372 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its position in Ciena by 65.6% during the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,593 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $96,000 after purchasing an additional 631 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 544 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MAI Capital Management boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 550 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $220.84, for a total transaction of $121,462.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 39,992 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,831,833.28. This represents a 1.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total value of $1,185,555.32. Following the sale, the director owned 54,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,653,914.88. The trade was a 13.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 53,889 shares of company stock valued at $9,778,110 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $203.88 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $191.74 and a 200-day moving average of $131.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.09. The company has a market capitalization of $28.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 239.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.17. Ciena Corporation has a 1 year low of $49.21 and a 1 year high of $248.00.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Northland Capmk cut Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Ciena from $175.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $270.00 price target on Ciena in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Ciena and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.