Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Trims Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC cut its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 13.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,874 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 293 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $159,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in Ciena by 925.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its position in Ciena by 409.8% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 520 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at $59,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Ciena by 59.2% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Ciena by 152.8% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $63.84 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $82.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $73.31. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44. The firm has a market cap of $9.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. Ciena’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total transaction of $1,137,776.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were 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 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764. 0.93% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays set a $100.00 target price on shares of Ciena and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Northland Securities raised shares of Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $60.00 to $75.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on shares of Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.38.

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.