Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Bought by Xponance Inc.

Xponance Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 20,341 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,048 shares during the period. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $916,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 87.0% during the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 50,597 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,407,000 after buying an additional 23,544 shares during the period. DigitalBridge Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 34.4% during the 3rd quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 352,727 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $16,670,000 after purchasing an additional 90,206 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ciena by 2.2% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 17,585 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $833,000 after buying an additional 376 shares during the last quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter valued at $483,000. Finally, Atreides Management LP purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth about $77,883,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Up 1.4 %

CIEN opened at $45.68 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $6.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.66, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.99. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $39.94 and a 52 week 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $50.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $48.16.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.18. The firm 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 in the previous year, the firm earned $0.48 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total value of $26,442.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 41,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,052,464.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $26,442.13. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 41,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,052,464.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.19, for a total transaction of $175,665.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 230,001 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,543,750.19. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 107,189 shares of company stock valued at $5,754,880. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $44.00 target price for the company. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price target for the company. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.79.

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.