New York State Teachers Retirement System Grows Stock Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

New York State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 169,852 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,133 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Ciena were worth $8,183,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in Ciena by 1,171.4% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 44,854 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,161,000 after buying an additional 41,326 shares in the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the second quarter worth $661,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 949,476 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $42,736,000 after acquiring an additional 18,860 shares in the last quarter. Capital Fund Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 67.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Fund Management S.A. now owns 225,172 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,135,000 after purchasing an additional 90,610 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth $73,476,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,368,269.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 10,378 shares of company stock worth $501,724. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CIEN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Ciena from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 7th. B. Riley dropped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ciena from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $53.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.25.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $56.54 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 3.88 and a quick ratio of 2.76. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $39.94 and a 1 year high of $63.24. The company has a market capitalization of $8.13 billion, a PE ratio of 54.37, a P/E/G ratio of 5.35 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a fifty day moving average of $49.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $49.98.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, June 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $910.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $895.80 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 7.16% and a net margin of 3.71%. The business’s revenue was down 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.59 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current 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.