Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Acquires 621 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 21,943 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 621 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $1,861,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter worth about $57,861,000. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC bought a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $56,997,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,919,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its holdings in Ciena by 21.8% during the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 799,546 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $67,810,000 after purchasing an additional 143,350 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 159.8% in the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 218,980 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $18,572,000 after purchasing an additional 134,694 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 2,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.88, for a total transaction of $172,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 207,370 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,283,645.60. The trade was a 1.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 391,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,534,199.82. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 66,560 shares of company stock worth $5,406,323. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Northland Securities upgraded Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price target on Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.38.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $61.50 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $78.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $73.92. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $43.30 and a 52 week high of $101.44. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 107.90, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

Ciena 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.