Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 959,831 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,315 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned 0.68% of Ciena worth $81,403,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its position in shares of Ciena by 409.8% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 520 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 59.2% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.62.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total value of $519,588.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 398,549 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,453,129.09. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764 in the last 90 days. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $65.24 on Tuesday. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $43.30 and a one year high of $101.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. The business has a fifty day moving average of $83.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $73.22. The company has a market cap of $9.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 114.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results 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). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share 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.