Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) is North Growth Management Ltd.’s 2nd Largest Position

North Growth Management Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 13.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 458,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 73,000 shares during the quarter. Ciena comprises 7.4% of North Growth Management Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. North Growth Management Ltd. owned 0.32% of Ciena worth $38,874,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $57,861,000. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena in the fourth quarter worth about $56,997,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the third quarter worth about $40,416,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at about $35,403,000. Finally, LMR Partners LLP purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $17,236,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on CIEN shares. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Evercore ISI lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays boosted their price target on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.77.

Ciena Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $89.74 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $84.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $68.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $43.30 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44. The company has a market cap of $12.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 157.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.88.

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

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.86, for a total value of $577,048.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 412,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,974,964.14. The trade was a 1.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 57,581 shares of company stock valued at $4,875,548. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.