Flputnam Investment Management Co. Buys 511 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Flputnam Investment Management Co. grew its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 35,280 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 511 shares during the quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $2,992,000 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 company. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 296 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its position in Ciena by 409.8% during the 4th 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 last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 152.8% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the period. Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Ciena by 59.2% in 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 during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 5,648 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total value of $478,046.72. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 109,878 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,300,073.92. This trade represents a 4.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176 over the last ninety days. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.77.

Ciena Trading Up 1.9 %

NYSE:CIEN opened at $79.49 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $85.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $72.35. The stock has a market cap of $11.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 139.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $43.30 and a 12 month high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued 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 company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

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.