Stephens Investment Management Group LLC Purchases Shares of 672,060 Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Stephens Investment Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 672,060 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $56,997,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CIEN. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at $202,000. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Ciena by 640.7% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 64,466 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,106,000 after buying an additional 55,763 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 13.7% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 8,799 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $424,000 after buying an additional 1,062 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Ciena by 10.4% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 29,614 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,427,000 after acquiring an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the second quarter valued at approximately $221,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $89.74 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.75 billion, a PE ratio of 157.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.88. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $101.44. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $84.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $68.58.

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). 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 revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value of $1,436,843.52. Following the transaction, the director now owns 59,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,042,121.12. This trade represents a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the sale, 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. Insiders sold 57,581 shares of company stock valued at $4,875,548 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Evercore ISI downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Northland Securities upped their price target on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Citigroup upped 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. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.77.

Ciena Company Profile

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.