Ciena Corporation $CIEN Shares Sold by Stephens Inc. AR

Stephens Inc. AR cut its stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 35.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,801 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,561 shares during the quarter. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Ciena were worth $1,087,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Community Bank N.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Ciena by 71.0% in the 4th quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 106 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Hilltop National Bank acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Truvestments Capital LLC raised its holdings in Ciena by 45.3% during the 4th quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 154 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Finally, Acumen Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. B. Riley Financial raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $283.00 to $531.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Northland Securities set a $450.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 5th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $285.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Raymond James Financial boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $320.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Ciena from $550.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $530.56.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $562.05, for a total value of $1,659,171.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 272,509 shares in the company, valued at $153,163,683.45. The trade was a 1.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.33, for a total transaction of $739,599.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 42,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,992,499.76. This represents a 3.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 three months, insiders have sold 22,827 shares of company stock worth $11,541,133. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:CIEN traded down $1.22 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $461.12. 1,282,857 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,926,307. The company has a market capitalization of $65.27 billion, a PE ratio of 153.71 and a beta of 1.27. Ciena Corporation has a 52-week low of $76.89 and a 52-week high of $637.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.73. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $508.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $397.63.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 18.15% and a net margin of 7.87%.The company had revenue of $1.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 5.4 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.