Impax Asset Management Group plc Raises Stock Holdings in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 26.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 189,914 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 40,000 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc’s holdings in Ciena were worth $15,446,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bayforest Capital Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 34.7% during the first quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 636 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in Ciena by 107.5% in the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 372 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 15.4% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,147 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its stake in Ciena by 82.5% in the second quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,203 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $98,000 after purchasing an additional 544 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Ciena by 27.3% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,556 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $127,000 after buying an additional 334 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,863 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.14, for a total value of $262,943.82. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 43,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,143,965.34. This represents a 4.10% decrease in their position. The sale 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 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.36, for a total transaction of $59,276.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 40,653 shares in the company, valued at $6,884,992.08. The trade was a 0.85% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 51,824 shares of company stock worth $8,008,263 in the last ninety days. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, October 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Ciena from $105.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Argus boosted their target price on Ciena from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ciena from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $100.00 to $140.00 in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $78.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $153.20.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $194.33 on Friday. Ciena Corporation has a 1-year low of $49.21 and a 1-year high of $214.17. The stock has a market cap of $27.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 200.34, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 3.28 and a quick ratio of 2.52. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $161.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $110.32.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter. Ciena had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 3.10%.The business had revenue of $844.44 million for the quarter. On average, research analysts expect that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.