Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Sold by Congress Asset Management Co. MA

Congress Asset Management Co. MA reduced its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 75.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,963 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 15,041 shares during the quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA’s holdings in Ciena were worth $245,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 17,336 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $857,000 after purchasing an additional 951 shares during the period. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth $154,000. Bridgefront Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth $354,000. Finally, Nebula Research & Development LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 295.8% during the 4th quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC now owns 19,211 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $865,000 after purchasing an additional 14,357 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $44.00 price objective on the stock. Raymond James lowered shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. B. Riley decreased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ciena from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $53.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.25.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $26,442.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 41,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,052,464.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $26,442.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 41,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,052,464.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.99, for a total transaction of $199,926.34. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 372,611 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,881,601.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,641 shares of company stock valued at $1,031,032 in the last 90 days. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $48.45 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $6.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 3.88, a quick ratio of 2.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company’s 50-day moving average is $47.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $49.42. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $39.94 and a 12-month high of $63.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.12. Ciena had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 7.16%. The company had revenue of $910.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $895.80 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.59 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.22 EPS for the current year.

About Ciena

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.