Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd Purchases 2,954 Shares of Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 80.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,635 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,954 shares during the quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Ciena were worth $967,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 23.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,462,840 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $941,451,000 after buying an additional 1,219,787 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Ciena by 10.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,495,795 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $284,313,000 after acquiring an additional 329,821 shares during the period. Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at $292,310,000. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in Ciena by 48.5% in the third quarter. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,983,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $288,864,000 after purchasing an additional 648,000 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its stake in Ciena by 7.6% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 1,836,981 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $267,593,000 after purchasing an additional 130,507 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, Director Patrick Gallagher sold 11,618 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.45, for a total value of $2,642,514.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 50,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,414,350.80. This represents a 18.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $359.53, for a total transaction of $1,061,332.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 293,084 shares in the company, valued at approximately $105,372,490.52. This represents a 1.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 143,283 shares of company stock worth $34,372,491. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Ciena from $320.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ciena in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $280.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $230.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $327.12.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN opened at $408.78 on Tuesday. Ciena Corporation has a 12-month low of $49.21 and a 12-month high of $419.80. The company has a current ratio of 2.81, a quick ratio of 2.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $302.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $227.52. The company has a market capitalization of $57.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 260.37, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.07.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 4.47%.The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena Company 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.