Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 19,843 Shares of Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Vanguard Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,068,602 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 19,843 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.11% of Ciena worth $2,195,043,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 50.4% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 200 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its position in Ciena by 11.1% during the third quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 698 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $102,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Ciena by 1.3% in the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,475 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $943,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 2.3% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,071 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $593,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameritas Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 104.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 204 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $317.60 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $44.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 373.65, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a fifty day moving average of $250.80 and a 200 day moving average of $186.59. Ciena Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $49.21 and a fifty-two week high of $320.42.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.59% and a return on equity of 8.38%. The business’s revenue was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.54 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 21,383 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.89, for a total transaction of $5,300,631.87. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 91,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,747,625.85. This represents a 18.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 8,554 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.66, for a total value of $1,921,741.64. Following the sale, the director directly owned 9,422 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,116,746.52. This represents a 47.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 160,083 shares of company stock worth $37,204,740 over the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Northland Securities set a $190.00 price target on shares of Ciena and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Zacks Research cut Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Ciena from $138.00 to $279.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $247.67.

Ciena Profile

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena’s product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.