Norges Bank Invests $189.89 Million in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Norges Bank bought a new position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 811,950 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $189,891,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter worth about $2,747,810,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 23.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,462,840 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $941,451,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219,787 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 10.4% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,495,795 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $284,313,000 after acquiring an additional 329,821 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,687,437 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $627,567,000 after acquiring an additional 145,948 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lone Pine Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at approximately $292,310,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on Ciena from $230.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $615.00 price objective on Ciena in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings raised Ciena from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Barclays upped their price objective on Ciena from $279.00 to $372.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Ciena from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $420.39.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $623.07 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $88.10 billion, a PE ratio of 396.86 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $512.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $351.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.14 and a current ratio of 2.81. Ciena Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $70.77 and a fifty-two week high of $637.51.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 4.47% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.64 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Ciena Corporation will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 22,014 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.80, for a total transaction of $9,021,337.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 68 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,866.40. This represents a 99.69% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 1,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.65, for a total transaction of $684,780.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 43,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,074,931.65. This represents a 2.66% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 44,174 shares of company stock valued at $19,502,359. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ciena Company Profile

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.