Capital Investment Counsel Inc Purchases New Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Capital Investment Counsel Inc acquired a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 3,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $254,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena by 152.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in Ciena by 59.2% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Ciena by 241.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.16, for a total value of $31,556.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,197 shares in the company, valued at $4,435,601.52. This represents a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,194,102.73. This trade represents a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 56,642 shares of company stock valued at $4,818,176 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $86.58 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $43.30 and a 52 week high of $101.44. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $86.75 and a 200-day moving average of $70.83. The company has a market cap of $12.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 151.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.88.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.77.

Ciena Profile

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.