SWS Partners Has $3.19 Million Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

SWS Partners boosted its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 37,591 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 237 shares during the period. SWS Partners’ holdings in Ciena were worth $3,188,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its holdings in 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 buying an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays raised their price target 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. Citigroup lifted their target price on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.77.

Ciena Trading Down 6.1 %

NYSE:CIEN opened at $74.72 on Tuesday. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $43.30 and a 12 month high of $101.44. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $85.59 and its 200 day moving average is $72.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.65 billion, a PE ratio of 131.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.86, for a total transaction of $577,048.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 412,149 shares in the company, valued at $34,974,964.14. This represents a 1.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. This represents a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

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.