Krilogy Financial LLC Acquires New Position in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Krilogy Financial LLC bought a new position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 4,497 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $655,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CIEN. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter valued at about $1,993,000. Convergence Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,726,000. World Investment Advisors purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 2nd quarter valued at about $253,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Ciena by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,243,053 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $426,420,000 after acquiring an additional 359,579 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its stake in Ciena by 38.7% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 112,011 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $16,317,000 after purchasing an additional 31,225 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James Financial set a $240.00 price objective on Ciena in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $138.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, December 21st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Ciena to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $260.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $241.67.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.60, for a total transaction of $784,051.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 301,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $80,195,264. The trade was a 0.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Patrick Gallagher sold 11,618 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.45, for a total transaction of $2,642,514.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 50,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,414,350.80. This trade represents a 18.80% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 157,242 shares of company stock worth $36,341,766. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Stock Performance

Ciena stock opened at $303.85 on Friday. Ciena Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $49.21 and a fifty-two week high of $308.81. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $243.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $180.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a current ratio of 2.73. The stock has a market cap of $42.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 357.48, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.13.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 8.38% and a net margin of 2.59%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.54 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena’s product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.