M&T Bank Corp Grows Position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN)

M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 16.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,765 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,365 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Ciena were worth $590,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Penserra Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 9.3% in the first quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 40,391 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,440,000 after purchasing an additional 3,441 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its position in Ciena by 15.0% in the first quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 149,914 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $9,059,000 after purchasing an additional 19,500 shares during the last quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 15.5% in the first quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC now owns 19,156 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,158,000 after purchasing an additional 2,566 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its position in Ciena by 20.8% in the first quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 44,641 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,698,000 after purchasing an additional 7,673 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peregrine Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Peregrine Capital Management LLC now owns 200,369 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,108,000 after buying an additional 13,672 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Northland Securities set a $100.00 price objective on Ciena in a research report on Monday, June 30th. 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. Evercore ISI reaffirmed a “mixed” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price objective (up from $89.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.08.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.90, for a total value of $488,920.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 368,880 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,522,472. The trade was a 1.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 2,044 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.64, for a total transaction of $166,872.16. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 47,198 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,853,244.72. This represents a 4.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 34,769 shares of company stock valued at $2,689,848. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $82.63 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 114.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 3.40 and a quick ratio of 2.57. Ciena Corporation has a 1-year low of $44.89 and a 1-year high of $101.44. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $78.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $75.77.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.08). Ciena had a return on equity of 5.08% and a net margin of 2.46%. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.