Principal Securities Inc. lessened its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 79.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,065 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 11,902 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc.'s holdings in Ciena were worth $260,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $1,334,290,000 after acquiring an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Ciena by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $273,427,000 after purchasing an additional 53,078 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 1.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 33,074 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Ciena by 0.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 955,516 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $58,850,000 after purchasing an additional 6,605 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter worth about $57,861,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company's stock.
NYSE CIEN opened at $84.15 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $101.44. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $86.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $71.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.00 billion, a PE ratio of 147.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88.
Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.
In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was 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 ownership of the stock. 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. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Ciena from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Ciena from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price target for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $78.77.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Ciena
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.
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