PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Sells 3,821 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. decreased its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 23.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,506 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,821 shares during the quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $1,061,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in Ciena by 925.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its stake in Ciena by 409.8% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 520 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 418 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Ciena by 152.8% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares during the period. Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the fourth quarter worth $59,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Ciena by 59.2% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on CIEN. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays set a $100.00 price objective on Ciena and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price objective on Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. This trade represents a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total value of $519,588.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 398,549 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,453,129.09. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 59,942 shares of company stock worth $5,025,949. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN opened at $63.84 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $82.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $73.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The firm has a market cap of $9.07 billion, a PE ratio of 112.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.