Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Has $1.48 Million Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 17.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,845 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,925 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings in Ciena were worth $1,478,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp purchased a new position in Ciena in the third quarter worth $101,000. Smithfield Trust Co boosted its position in Ciena by 74.5% in the third quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 2,999 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $142,000 after purchasing an additional 1,280 shares during the last quarter. Operose Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 19.0% in the third quarter. Operose Advisors LLC now owns 3,214 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $152,000 after purchasing an additional 514 shares during the last quarter. PFG Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at $161,000. Finally, Claret Asset Management Corp bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at $203,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the topic of several research reports. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on Ciena in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup initiated coverage on Ciena in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $44.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.79.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 8,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.20, for a total value of $501,586.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 407,342 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,521,988.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 8,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.20, for a total value of $501,586.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 407,342 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,521,988.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.80, for a total value of $186,636.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 385,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,252,883.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 107,189 shares of company stock worth $5,754,880 over the last ninety days. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $45.68 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $39.94 and a 52 week high of $63.24. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $50.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $48.16. The company has a quick ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 4.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market cap of $6.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.66, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.99.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 9.92% and a net margin of 5.22%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.48 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.