Joule Financial LLC Makes New Investment in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Joule Financial LLC bought a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 10,390 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $628,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CIEN. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Ciena by 108.6% in the fourth quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 290 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Ciena by 328.2% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in Ciena by 73.7% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the period. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 77.2% in the 4th quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 66.7% during the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on CIEN shares. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Ciena from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Ciena from $98.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $76.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Barclays set a $100.00 target price on shares of Ciena and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $85.00 price target on Ciena in a research note on Friday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $83.15.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.18, for a total transaction of $443,224.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 391,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,534,199.82. The trade was a 1.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.67, for a total transaction of $27,534.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,233 shares in the company, valued at $3,637,150.11. This trade represents a 0.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 51,788 shares of company stock valued at $3,431,319 over the last three months. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $72.88 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $10.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 127.86, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.12. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $70.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $75.84. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $44.69 and a 12 month high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.08). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.