Blue Trust Inc. Grows Stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 44.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,056 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 632 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $174,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 59.2% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Ciena by 26.7% in the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,071 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $600,000 after purchasing an additional 1,491 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $421,000. Boston Common Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter worth approximately $256,000. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter worth $245,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN stock opened at $87.85 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 154.12, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.88. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $82.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.84. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CIEN. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.77.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 57,581 shares of company stock valued at $4,875,548 over the last quarter. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.