Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Holdings Increased by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 159.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 218,980 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 134,694 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Ciena were worth $18,572,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position 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 worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter worth approximately $59,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 59.2% in 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. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position 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 worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter worth approximately $97,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $84.15 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.00 billion, a PE ratio of 147.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $86.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $71.27. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted 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). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. Ciena’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 49,197 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,435,601.52. The trade was a 0.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 $34,974,964.14. The trade was a 1.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176 over the last ninety days. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.77.

Ciena Company 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.