EntryPoint Capital LLC Makes New $404,000 Investment in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 4,769 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $404,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of CIEN. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management acquired a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 409.8% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 520 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 59.2% during 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 period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on CIEN shares. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays set a $100.00 price target on Ciena and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Northland Securities upgraded shares of Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.38.

Ciena Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $69.23 on Wednesday. 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 cap of $9.84 billion, a PE ratio of 121.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a 50-day moving average of $80.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $73.98.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value of $1,436,843.52. Following the sale, the director now owns 59,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,042,121.12. This represents a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible 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 stock was sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,742 shares of company stock worth $5,469,173 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

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.