800 Shares in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Bought by Daiwa Securities Group Inc.

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 800 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $68,000.

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

Ciena Stock Up 2.9 %

NYSE CIEN opened at $65.70 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $81.92 and its 200 day moving average is $73.48. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $9.34 billion, a PE ratio of 115.27, a PEG 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.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total transaction of $1,137,776.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. The trade was a 3.10 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value of $1,436,843.52. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. The trade was a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 59,942 shares of company stock valued at $5,025,949. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on CIEN. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Northland Securities upgraded Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $75.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays set a $100.00 price objective on Ciena and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Northland Capmk upgraded Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.38.

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.