Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Sold by Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC cut its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 17.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 543,556 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 114,207 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $46,099,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Ciena by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,316,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,299,004,000 after purchasing an additional 139,941 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,236,920 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $444,143,000 after buying an additional 17,447 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $273,427,000 after buying an additional 53,078 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,419,947 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $205,301,000 after acquiring an additional 11,933 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Ciena by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 959,831 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $81,403,000 after acquiring an additional 4,315 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Northland Securities raised shares of Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays set a $100.00 price objective on Ciena and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 18,888 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.88, for a total transaction of $1,131,013.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 89,258 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,344,769.04. The trade was a 17.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,200 shares of company stock valued at $4,921,513 over the last quarter. 0.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $53.53 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 market cap of $7.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 93.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.15. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $75.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $74.08. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $43.30 and a one year high of $101.44.

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.