Employees Retirement System of Texas Invests $355,000 in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $355,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. KBC Group NV grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 11.3% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 31,161 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $7,288,000 after buying an additional 3,156 shares during the last quarter. Convergence Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,726,000. FengHe Fund Management Pte. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 164.0% during the fourth quarter. FengHe Fund Management Pte. Ltd. now owns 660,988 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $154,585,000 after buying an additional 410,588 shares during the last quarter. Peak Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 222.7% during the fourth quarter. Peak Financial Advisors LLC now owns 11,596 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,712,000 after buying an additional 8,003 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 1,095.8% during the fourth quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 27,527 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,438,000 after buying an additional 25,225 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $569.20 on Friday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $80.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 362.55, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $496.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $340.05. Ciena Corporation has a 52-week low of $70.77 and a 52-week high of $605.61.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup upped their target price on Ciena from $345.00 to $658.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Zacks Research raised Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Ciena from $425.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Ciena from $430.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Ciena from $286.00 to $405.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $404.94.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related 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 value of $9,021,337.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 68 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,866.40. The trade was a 99.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $562.05, for a total value of $1,659,171.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 272,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $153,163,683.45. The trade was a 1.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 44,174 shares of company stock worth $18,878,661. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

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.