Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stake Lessened by Truist Financial Corp

Truist Financial Corp cut its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 22.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 15,857 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 4,649 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in Ciena were worth $1,345,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $148,348,000 after acquiring an additional 33,074 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $245,000. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $421,000. Atria Investments Inc acquired a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,988,000. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in Ciena by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.16, for a total value of $31,556.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,197 shares in the company, valued at $4,435,601.52. This represents a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.86, for a total transaction of $577,048.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 412,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,974,964.14. The trade was a 1.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176 in the last quarter. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on CIEN. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.77.

Ciena Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $79.49 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $43.30 and a 52 week 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 company has a market cap of $11.33 billion, a PE ratio of 139.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $85.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $72.19.

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

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.