Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Trims Stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. reduced its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 52.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,719 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 19,267 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $798,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in Ciena by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 36,296 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,227,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the period. Janney Capital Management LLC raised its position in Ciena by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC now owns 9,774 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $462,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in Ciena by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 28,563 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,214,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in Ciena by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 8,321 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $393,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Ciena by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 42,933 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,029,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 70,838 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.11, for a total value of $3,833,044.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 424,006 shares in the company, valued at $22,942,964.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 70,838 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.11, for a total transaction of $3,833,044.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 424,006 shares in the company, valued at $22,942,964.66. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 8,332 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.20, for a total transaction of $501,586.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 407,342 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,521,988.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 99,867 shares of company stock worth $5,423,887 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $45.04 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $6.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.99. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $39.94 and a twelve month high of $63.24. The company has a quick ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 4.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a 50 day moving average of $52.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $48.25.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 5.22% and a return on equity of 9.92%. Ciena’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.48 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CIEN. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “sell” rating and a $44.00 target price on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $56.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, BNP Paribas began coverage on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 target price on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.79.

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.