Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Buys 42,370 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp raised its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 33.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 169,280 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 42,370 shares during the quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp’s holdings in Ciena were worth $8,156,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Ciena by 1,944.4% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $101,986,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961,513 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter worth about $73,476,000. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the first quarter worth approximately $48,214,000. Rokos Capital Management LLP grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 118.7% during the first quarter. Rokos Capital Management LLP now owns 1,524,332 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $75,378,000 after buying an additional 827,352 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Ciena by 29.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 791,215 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $52.81 on Wednesday. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $39.94 and a 1 year high of $63.24. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $51.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $49.84. The company has a market cap of $7.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.78, a PEG ratio of 6.59 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.36 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value 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 $10,368,269.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,368,269.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on CIEN shares. B. Riley cut their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.15.

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.