Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Sold by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky trimmed its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 4.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 48,594 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 2,400 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Ciena were worth $2,188,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at $61,000. Operose Advisors LLC increased its position in Ciena by 19.0% in the 3rd quarter. Operose Advisors LLC now owns 3,214 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $152,000 after acquiring an additional 514 shares during the period. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $154,000. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $212,000. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $204,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ciena from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $53.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, BNP Paribas initiated coverage on Ciena in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.80, for a total transaction of $186,636.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 385,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,252,883.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.80, for a total value of $186,636.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 385,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,252,883.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,288 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.00, for a total value of $63,112.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,444,267. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 21,641 shares of company stock worth $1,031,032. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $47.00 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $47.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 3.88 and a quick ratio of 2.76. The company has a market capitalization of $6.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.19, a PEG ratio of 4.57 and a beta of 0.99. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $39.94 and a 1-year high of $63.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $910.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $895.80 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 7.16% and a net margin of 3.71%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.59 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena Company Profile

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.