Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Purchased by Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 12.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 110,842 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,242 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $9,401,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CIEN. New York Life Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter worth $1,291,000. Nwam LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $243,000. Amalgamated Bank grew its position in shares of Ciena by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 68,806 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,835,000 after buying an additional 273 shares during the last quarter. Coyle Financial Counsel LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the fourth quarter worth about $1,846,000. Finally, Capital Investment Counsel Inc bought a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter worth about $254,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Northland Securities upped their target price on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays upped their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.77.

Ciena Stock Down 3.3 %

Ciena stock opened at $78.08 on Friday. 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 $11.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 136.99, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $86.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $71.98. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for 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 in the prior year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176. 0.93% of the stock is 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.