Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Buys New Shares in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 39,690 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,398,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth about $263,000. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in Ciena by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 390,148 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,088,000 after buying an additional 2,594 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Ciena by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 8,794 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $744,000 after buying an additional 479 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its stake 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $221,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Ciena and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $65.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $85.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $83.15.

Ciena Stock Up 2.2%

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $73.74 on Tuesday. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $44.89 and a 12-month high of $101.44. The company has a market capitalization of $10.42 billion, a PE ratio of 129.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $72.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.09.

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). The business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. Ciena’s revenue was up 23.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.27 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.89, for a total transaction of $543,252.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 362,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,926,571.20. This trade represents a 1.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 18,888 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.88, for a total transaction of $1,131,013.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 89,258 shares in the company, valued at $5,344,769.04. This represents a 17.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 44,988 shares of company stock worth $2,988,095. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.