Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA Takes $1.39 Million Position in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA bought a new position in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 3,570 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,386,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter worth about $2,747,810,000. State Street Corp increased its position in Ciena by 17.2% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,102,409 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,193,300,000 after purchasing an additional 750,128 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 53.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,051,625 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $947,554,000 after buying an additional 1,404,132 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in Ciena by 10.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,495,795 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $284,313,000 after acquiring an additional 329,821 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Ciena by 30,114.5% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,870,677 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $671,365,000 after purchasing an additional 2,861,176 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $562.05, for a total transaction of $1,659,171.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 272,509 shares in the company, valued at $153,163,683.45. This trade represents a 1.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Marc D. Graff sold 126 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $449.36, for a total transaction of $56,619.36. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 127,081 shares in the company, valued at approximately $57,105,118.16. The trade was a 0.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 17,120 shares of company stock worth $8,872,766 in the last 90 days. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ciena Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of CIEN opened at $422.47 on Friday. Ciena Corporation has a 12 month low of $76.89 and a 12 month high of $637.51. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $513.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $389.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.11. The stock has a market cap of $59.80 billion, a PE ratio of 140.82 and a beta of 1.27.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 18.15% and a net margin of 7.87%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. UBS Group boosted their target price on Ciena from $285.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $615.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, May 29th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $425.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $380.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $530.56.

Ciena Company 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.