Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. Has $67.81 Million Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 21.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 799,546 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 143,350 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $67,810,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Greenleaf Trust boosted its stake in Ciena by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 4,978 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $422,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Ciena by 3.8% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in Ciena by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Ciena by 59.2% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their price target on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.77.

Ciena Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $89.74 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $84.04 and a 200-day moving average of $68.58. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44. The stock has a market cap of $12.75 billion, a PE ratio of 157.44, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.88.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at $5,042,121.12. This represents a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.86, for a total value of $577,048.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 412,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,974,964.14. This represents a 1.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 57,581 shares of company stock worth $4,875,548. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About 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.