Altshuler Shaham Ltd Makes New $1.41 Million Investment in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 29,200 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,407,000.

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

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 9,712 shares of company stock worth $498,637. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. B. Riley cut their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.15.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $58.73 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $8.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.86 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.68. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $39.94 and a 12-month high of $63.24.

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