QRG Capital Management Inc. Increases Holdings in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 30.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,412 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,268 shares during the quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $1,266,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth about $395,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 139.6% in the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 5,253 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $317,000 after buying an additional 3,061 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.4% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 222,054 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $13,419,000 after buying an additional 3,117 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 14.6% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 5,762 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $348,000 after buying an additional 733 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 2nd quarter valued at about $234,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on CIEN shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded Ciena from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $430.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $286.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Evercore set a $330.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, March 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $367.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 22,014 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.80, for a total value of $9,021,337.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 68 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,866.40. The trade was a 99.69% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $405.00, for a total value of $2,025,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 46,341 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,768,105. This trade represents a 9.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 42,974 shares of company stock valued at $17,418,863 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of CIEN opened at $546.61 on Friday. Ciena Corporation has a one year low of $70.77 and a one year high of $583.78. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $427.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $299.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.14 and a current ratio of 2.81. The company has a market capitalization of $77.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 348.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 4.47%.Ciena’s quarterly revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.64 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 5.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena Profile

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena’s product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.