Nwam LLC Buys New Shares in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Nwam LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 2,871 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $243,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Creative Planning boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 65.0% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 14,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $894,000 after acquiring an additional 5,717 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 399.6% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,378 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $146,000 after purchasing an additional 1,902 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in Ciena by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $380,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised its holdings in Ciena by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 16,694 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,028,000 after buying an additional 955 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in Ciena by 2.4% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after buying an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Northland Securities increased their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.77.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at $4,256,582.77. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.86, for a total transaction of $577,048.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 412,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,974,964.14. This represents a 1.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $79.49 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $11.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 139.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $85.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.35. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72.

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

About Ciena

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.