Allstate Corp Takes $2.48 Million Position in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Allstate Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 10,607 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,481,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 710 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $166,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 50.4% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 200 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,055 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $247,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the period. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 1,549 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $362,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.7% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,772 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $695,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 22,014 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.80, for a total transaction of $9,021,337.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 68 shares in the company, valued at $27,866.40. The trade was a 99.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 1,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.65, for a total value of $684,780.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 43,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,074,931.65. This represents a 2.66% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 44,174 shares of company stock worth $18,878,661 over the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CIEN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on Ciena from $279.00 to $372.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Ciena from $230.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Zacks Research raised Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. B. Riley Financial lifted their price objective on Ciena from $222.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Finally, Evercore set a $330.00 price target on Ciena in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $404.94.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $569.20 on Friday. Ciena Corporation has a 52-week low of $70.77 and a 52-week high of $605.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.14 and a current ratio of 2.81. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $496.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $340.05. The firm has a market cap of $80.49 billion, a PE ratio of 362.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 4.47%.The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.64 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Corporation will post 5.12 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.