Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Sells 149,695 Shares of Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lowered its position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 29.1% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 364,547 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 149,695 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $141,528,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Cidel Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at $240,000. XML Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the first quarter worth about $370,000. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 147.3% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 190,949 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $74,132,000 after buying an additional 113,744 shares during the period. Terra Nova Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter valued at about $272,000. Finally, Stance Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,348,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 22,014 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.80, for a total value of $9,021,337.20. Following 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 at this link. 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 on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.10, for a total transaction of $559,320.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 42,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,921,580.10. The trade was a 2.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 40,374 shares of company stock valued at $18,324,470 over the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Zacks Research lowered Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Ciena from $405.00 to $490.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. B. Riley Financial increased their price objective on Ciena from $283.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $285.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $380.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $530.56.

Ciena Trading Up 0.4%

CIEN opened at $461.88 on Thursday. Ciena Corporation has a one year low of $76.89 and a one year high of $637.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.11. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $518.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $378.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $65.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 153.96 and a beta of 1.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $1.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.42 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

Ciena 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.