Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Trims Stake in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS cut its position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 7.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,811 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 2,487 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Ciena were worth $12,738,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SmartHarvest Portfolios LLC increased its position in Ciena by 1.8% during the first quarter. SmartHarvest Portfolios LLC now owns 1,142 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $443,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 9.5% in the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 358 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $139,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,107 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,194,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 71.0% in the fourth quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 106 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,629 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $381,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Ciena from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $285.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Northland Securities set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $550.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $615.00 price target on Ciena in a report on Friday, May 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $530.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 1,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.10, for a total value of $559,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 42,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,921,580.10. This trade represents a 2.73% decrease in their position. The transaction 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 Joseph Cumello sold 1,586 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.33, for a total value of $739,599.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 42,872 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,992,499.76. This trade represents a 3.57% 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 quarter, insiders sold 22,827 shares of company stock valued at $11,541,133. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Down 3.4%

NYSE CIEN opened at $445.18 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $63.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 148.39 and a beta of 1.27. Ciena Corporation has a 52-week low of $76.89 and a 52-week high of $637.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $506.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $400.21.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 18.15% and a net margin of 7.87%.The company had revenue of $1.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.42 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Ciena Corporation will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

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.