Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Acquired by Atria Investments Inc

Atria Investments Inc lifted its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 28.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 41,557 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,274 shares during the quarter. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in Ciena were worth $3,524,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CIEN. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position 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 buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its position 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 buying an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position 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 buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its position 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 buying an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on CIEN. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their price target on shares of Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Northland Securities increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.62.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were 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 directly owns 398,549 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,453,129.09. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764 over the last 90 days. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $68.75 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $84.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $73.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 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.