Merit Financial Group LLC Purchases Shares of 4,960 Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 4,960 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $421,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new stake in Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the period. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,781 shares of company stock worth $4,298,500 over the last 90 days. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $98.44 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 172.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $80.06 and its 200-day moving average is $65.58. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $43.30 and a one year high of $100.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.59 EPS for the current year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on CIEN shares. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley cut 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

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.