IFG Advisory LLC Takes $597,000 Position in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

IFG Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 2,551 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $597,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,747,810,000. Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $292,310,000. Atreides Management LP bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the second quarter valued at approximately $102,705,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 23.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,462,840 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $941,451,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,787 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 2,174.2% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,143,855 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $166,625,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,557 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on CIEN shares. B. Riley Financial increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $222.00 to $283.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $279.00 to $372.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $615.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday. Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $406.61.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.51, for a total value of $1,226,585.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 281,365 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $116,909,971.15. This trade represents a 1.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 22,014 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.80, for a total transaction of $9,021,337.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 68 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,866.40. This represents a 99.69% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 44,174 shares of company stock valued at $18,878,661. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Up 1.8%

NYSE:CIEN opened at $580.59 on Friday. Ciena Corporation has a 52 week low of $70.77 and a 52 week high of $605.61. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $500.69 and a 200 day moving average of $341.74. The company has a quick ratio of 2.14, a current ratio of 2.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $82.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 369.80, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.18. Ciena had a net margin of 4.47% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena Corporation will post 5.12 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.