Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires New Shares in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 41,500 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,868,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 87.0% during the 3rd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 50,597 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,407,000 after acquiring an additional 23,544 shares in the last quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 34.4% during the 3rd quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 352,727 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $16,670,000 after acquiring an additional 90,206 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 17,585 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $833,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares in the last quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at $483,000. Finally, Atreides Management LP acquired a new position in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth about $77,883,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $26,442.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 41,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,052,464.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 8,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.20, for a total transaction of $501,586.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 407,342 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,521,988.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total value of $26,442.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 41,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,052,464.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 107,189 shares of company stock valued at $5,754,880. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the company. StockNews.com raised Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Ciena from $56.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Citigroup assumed coverage on Ciena in a report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “sell” rating and a $44.00 target price on the stock. Finally, BNP Paribas began coverage on Ciena in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.79.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $43.77 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $39.94 and a one year high of $63.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.42, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.99. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $48.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.29 and a quick ratio of 3.12.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 9.92% and a net margin of 5.22%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.48 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena Profile

Ciena Corporation provides hardware and software services for delivery of video, data, and voice traffic metro, aggregation, and access communications network worldwide. The company's Networking Platforms segment offers convergence of coherent optical transport, open optical networking, optical transport network switching, IP routing, and switching services.