Tredje AP fonden Makes New $1.27 Million Investment in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Tredje AP fonden purchased a new position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 15,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,272,000.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in Ciena by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 284,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $24,086,000 after purchasing an additional 3,500 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter worth $6,500,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Ciena by 51.6% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,267 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $107,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Ciena by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,471 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,567,000 after acquiring an additional 627 shares during the period. Finally, Wealthfront Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter worth $746,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total transaction of $235,050.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,435,197.48. This represents a 5.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,194,102.73. This trade represents a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock worth $5,337,764 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Northland Securities raised Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.38.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $63.84 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $9.10 billion, a PE ratio of 112.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a fifty day moving average of $82.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $73.19.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

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.