Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Sold by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans cut its holdings in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 5.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,829,410 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 176,163 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned about 1.97% of Ciena worth $136,321,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in Ciena by 339.5% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CIEN. Raymond James lowered Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.15.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,368,269.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at $4,635,840. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,368,269.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,712 shares of company stock valued at $498,637 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Up 1.3 %

CIEN opened at $58.73 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market cap of $8.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.86 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s 50 day moving average is $52.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $49.87. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $39.94 and a 52 week high of $63.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 EPS for the current 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.