Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Buys 10,904 Shares of Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its stake in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 32.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 44,555 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 10,904 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Ciena were worth $3,624,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in Ciena by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 9,765 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $590,000 after purchasing an additional 1,365 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 25.5% during the first quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 61,446 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,713,000 after buying an additional 12,494 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR raised its holdings in Ciena by 21.8% in the 1st quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 5,451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $329,000 after acquiring an additional 975 shares during the last quarter. Forum Financial Management LP lifted its position in Ciena by 20.8% in the 1st quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 3,684 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $223,000 after acquiring an additional 634 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its stake in Ciena by 44.7% during the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 103,437 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,251,000 after purchasing an additional 31,947 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $209.36 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $160.18 and its 200 day moving average is $109.73. The company has a current ratio of 3.28, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market cap of $29.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 215.83, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.17. Ciena Corporation has a 12-month low of $49.21 and a 12-month high of $214.17.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter. Ciena had a net margin of 3.10% and a return on equity of 6.62%. The business had revenue of $844.44 million for the quarter. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.36, for a total transaction of $59,276.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 40,653 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,884,992.08. This trade represents a 0.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total transaction of $631,924.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 305,157 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,358,240.01. The trade was a 2.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 58,974 shares of company stock valued at $8,655,764 over the last three months. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on CIEN shares. Zacks Research raised Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. BNP Paribas Exane raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $127.50 to $175.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $120.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ciena from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $100.00 to $140.00 in a report on Friday, October 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $153.20.

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.