Arizona State Retirement System Has $3.56 Million Stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Arizona State Retirement System increased its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 41,915 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Ciena were worth $3,555,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 8,400 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $712,000 after buying an additional 412 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc increased its position in Ciena by 28.7% during the fourth quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 41,557 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,524,000 after acquiring an additional 9,274 shares during the period. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in Ciena by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC now owns 12,973 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,100,000 after purchasing an additional 597 shares in the last quarter. SWS Partners boosted its holdings in Ciena by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. SWS Partners now owns 37,591 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,188,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 959,831 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $81,403,000 after purchasing an additional 4,315 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup lifted their price target 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. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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 report on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.62.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total transaction of $519,588.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 398,549 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,453,129.09. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 192,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,194,102.73. The trade was a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock worth $5,337,764. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Up 0.5 %

CIEN stock opened at $68.75 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $84.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $73.14. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $43.30 and a 12 month high of $101.44. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 120.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

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). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal 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.