Pacer Advisors Inc. Cuts Stake in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Pacer Advisors Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 33.1% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 24,890 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 12,290 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $9,663,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 71.0% during the fourth quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 106 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 2,100.0% in the 1st quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 88 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 45.3% in the 4th quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 154 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 635.7% during the 1st quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 103 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, Acumen Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.33, for a total transaction of $739,599.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 42,872 shares in the company, valued at $19,992,499.76. The trade was a 3.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,629 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.20, for a total transaction of $1,225,639.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 62,382 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,082,488.40. The trade was a 4.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,627 shares of company stock worth $10,508,776. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Ciena from $380.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Rothschild & Co Redburn began coverage on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, May 1st. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $416.00 target price on the stock. Argus set a $650.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $350.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $530.56.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $411.04 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $449.79 and a 200 day moving average of $417.02. Ciena Corporation has a 52 week low of $84.41 and a 52 week high of $637.51. The company has a market cap of $58.18 billion, a PE ratio of 137.01 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $1.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.50 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 7.87% and a return on equity of 18.15%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena 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.