Stephens Inc. AR Invests $380,000 in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Stephens Inc. AR acquired a new position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 4,476 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $380,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in Ciena by 152.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Ciena by 59.2% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Ciena by 241.5% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $88,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total value of $1,137,776.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 425,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. This trade represents a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at $17,194,102.73. The trade was a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 56,292 shares of company stock worth $4,786,620 over the last ninety days. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $89.45 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $85.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $69.93. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $101.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.71 billion, a PE ratio of 156.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on CIEN shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.77.

Ciena 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.