Aristeia Capital L.L.C. Makes New Investment in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Aristeia Capital L.L.C. bought a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 11,919 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $574,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the second quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its position in Ciena by 339.5% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing 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 David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total transaction of $170,835.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,368,269.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total transaction of $170,835.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,368,269.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 9,712 shares of company stock worth $498,637. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $61.68 on Tuesday. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $39.94 and a 12-month high of $63.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.86 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $52.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.74. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The business had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CIEN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup upgraded Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.00.

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.