Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Boosts Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 959,831 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,315 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $81,403,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Greenleaf Trust grew its holdings in Ciena by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 4,978 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $422,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in Ciena by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,459 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $887,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Ciena by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Ciena by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 4,469 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $379,000 after buying an additional 226 shares during the period. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Ciena by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,914 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $417,000 after buying an additional 228 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. Barclays boosted their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their target price on Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.62.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN stock opened at $65.24 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $9.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 114.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $83.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $73.22. 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 $43.30 and a 12-month high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total transaction of $1,137,776.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. This trade represents a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.16, for a total value of $31,556.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,197 shares in the company, valued at $4,435,601.52. This trade represents a 0.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 63,442 shares of company stock worth $5,337,764 in the last three months. 0.93% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.