Yousif Capital Management LLC Has $3.17 Million Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Yousif Capital Management LLC lessened its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 70,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 608 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $3,172,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. now owns 14,600 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $657,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 2.8% during the third quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC now owns 9,774 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $462,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its stake in Ciena by 3.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 8,321 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 42,933 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,029,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 65,144 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,079,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “sell” rating and a $44.00 target price for the company. Finally, BNP Paribas began coverage on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.79.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 70,838 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.11, for a total transaction of $3,833,044.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 424,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,942,964.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 70,838 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.11, for a total value of $3,833,044.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 424,006 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,942,964.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 8,332 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.20, for a total value of $501,586.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 407,342 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,521,988.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 107,189 shares of company stock valued at $5,754,880 over the last ninety days. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $46.61 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $50.68 and a 200-day moving average of $48.22. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $39.94 and a 12 month high of $63.24. The company has a current ratio of 4.29, a quick ratio of 3.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.74 billion, a PE ratio of 30.27, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.99.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 9.92% and a net margin of 5.22%. The firm had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.48 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Ciena

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.