Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Sold by Raymond James & Associates

Raymond James & Associates trimmed its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 45.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 55,294 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 46,821 shares during the quarter. Raymond James & Associates’ holdings in Ciena were worth $2,664,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. now owns 5,021,719 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $226,028,000 after purchasing an additional 368,897 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Ciena by 29.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,513,633 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $158,149,000 after purchasing an additional 791,215 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Ciena by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,162,410 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $97,331,000 after purchasing an additional 332,181 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1,944.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $101,986,000 after acquiring an additional 1,961,513 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $73,476,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CIEN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Ciena from $52.50 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 30th. B. Riley decreased their price objective on Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 7th. Raymond James downgraded Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $54.00 in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $57.73.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $57.65 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $50.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $49.94. The company has a quick ratio of 2.76, a current ratio of 3.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market cap of $8.28 billion, a PE ratio of 55.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $39.94 and a fifty-two week high of $63.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.12. Ciena had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 7.16%. The company had revenue of $910.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $895.80 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.59 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total transaction of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,368,269.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,635,840. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

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.