HighTower Advisors LLC Purchases 9,613 Shares of Ciena Corporation $CIEN

HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 77.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 22,095 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,613 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $3,219,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new position in Ciena during the third quarter worth about $28,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 50.4% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 200 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 104.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 204 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter worth approximately $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore set a $330.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. B. Riley Financial reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Northland Securities set a $190.00 price target on Ciena and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $252.13.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 21,383 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.89, for a total value of $5,300,631.87. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 91,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,747,625.85. This trade represents a 18.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Patrick Gallagher sold 11,618 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.45, for a total transaction of $2,642,514.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 50,184 shares in the company, valued at $11,414,350.80. The trade was a 18.80% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 160,083 shares of company stock valued at $37,204,740. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ciena Stock Down 3.5%

CIEN opened at $341.11 on Friday. Ciena Corporation has a 12 month low of $49.21 and a 12 month high of $365.90. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $263.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $195.25. The company has a market cap of $48.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 401.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.13.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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%.Ciena’s quarterly revenue was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.54 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current 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.