Stephens Inc. AR Boosts Stake in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Stephens Inc. AR grew its position in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 21.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,600 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,149 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Ciena were worth $537,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter worth approximately $70,065,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 375.4% in the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,235,696 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $100,499,000 after buying an additional 975,792 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter worth approximately $49,221,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 1,883.5% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 787,266 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $64,028,000 after buying an additional 747,576 shares during the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 35.0% in the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,708,540 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $220,286,000 after buying an additional 702,909 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on CIEN shares. Northland Securities set a $100.00 target price on Ciena in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $127.50 to $175.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Barclays increased their target price on Ciena from $102.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Ciena from $78.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $137.53.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $179.53 on Friday. Ciena Corporation has a one year low of $49.21 and a one year high of $181.05. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $133.51 and its 200 day moving average is $97.31. The stock has a market cap of $25.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 185.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a current ratio of 3.28.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter. Ciena had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 3.10%.The company had revenue of $844.44 million for the quarter. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total value of $1,185,555.32. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 54,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,653,914.88. This represents a 13.41% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.36, for a total value of $59,276.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 40,653 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,884,992.08. The trade was a 0.85% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 45,374 shares of company stock worth $5,936,444. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.