Ciena Corporation $CIEN Holdings Boosted by Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 956,593 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,788 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned approximately 0.68% of Ciena worth $77,800,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 15.4% during the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,147 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the period. Bayforest Capital Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 34.7% during the first quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 636 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its position in Ciena by 0.5% during the first quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 38,910 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,351,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Ciena by 5.1% in the second quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,961 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $322,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its position in Ciena by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 40,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,253,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CIEN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Argus boosted their price target on Ciena from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $120.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ciena from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $100.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Friday, October 10th. BNP Paribas set a $185.00 price objective on shares of Ciena and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $105.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $153.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total transaction of $631,924.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 305,157 shares in the company, valued at $28,358,240.01. The trade was a 2.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 24th. The shares were 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 directly owned 54,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,653,914.88. This represents a 13.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 51,935 shares of company stock worth $8,029,442 over the last quarter. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $205.56 on Friday. Ciena Corporation has a 1 year low of $49.21 and a 1 year high of $214.17. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $175.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $119.75. The company has a current ratio of 3.28, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market cap of $28.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 211.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.17.

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

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.