Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Cuts Holdings in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 43.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 5,557 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 4,206 shares during the quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $1,300,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at $2,747,810,000. Lone Pine Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at $292,310,000. Atreides Management LP purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 2nd quarter valued at $102,705,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Ciena by 23.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,462,840 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $941,451,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,787 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Ciena by 2,174.2% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,143,855 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $166,625,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,557 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $430.83 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $60.98 billion, a PE ratio of 143.61 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.73. The business’s fifty day moving average is $521.41 and its 200 day moving average is $368.39. Ciena Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $72.96 and a fifty-two week high of $637.51.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its 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 company had revenue of $1.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 18.15% and a net margin of 7.87%.Ciena’s quarterly revenue was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CIEN. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Ciena from $350.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Argus set a $650.00 price target on Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 5th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Ciena from $425.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $615.00 price target on Ciena in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on Ciena from $470.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $530.56.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 5,000 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $405.00, for a total transaction of $2,025,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 46,341 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,768,105. The trade was a 9.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.51, for a total value of $1,226,585.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 281,365 shares in the company, valued at $116,909,971.15. This trade represents a 1.04% 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 41,222 shares of company stock worth $18,441,027. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

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.