AIA Group Ltd Buys New Position in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

AIA Group Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 10,319 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,006,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,747,810,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its position in Ciena by 30,114.5% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,870,677 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $671,365,000 after purchasing an additional 2,861,176 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Ciena by 53.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,051,625 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $947,554,000 after purchasing an additional 1,404,132 shares in the last quarter. Atreides Management LP purchased a new stake in Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at about $102,705,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Ciena by 2,174.2% in the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,143,855 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $166,625,000 after buying an additional 1,093,557 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. B. Riley Financial boosted their target price on Ciena from $283.00 to $531.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Weiss Ratings downgraded Ciena from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Northland Securities set a $450.00 price target on Ciena in a report on Friday, June 5th. Rothschild & Co Redburn initiated coverage on Ciena in a research report on Friday, May 1st. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $416.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Argus set a $650.00 price objective on Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $530.56.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $373.72 on Monday. Ciena Corporation has a 12 month low of $83.20 and a 12 month high of $637.51. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $495.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $404.91. The company has a market cap of $52.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 124.57 and a beta of 1.27.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.42 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of the company’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 transaction of $1,659,171.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 272,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $153,163,683.45. This represents a 1.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,629 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.20, for a total value of $1,225,639.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 62,382 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,082,488.40. The trade was a 4.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 three months, insiders have sold 21,627 shares of company stock valued at $10,974,985. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.