Parallel Advisors LLC Sells 310 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Parallel Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,770 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 310 shares during the quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $405,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $57,861,000. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $56,997,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP bought a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter worth $35,403,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Ciena during the fourth quarter worth $40,919,000. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its stake in Ciena by 21.8% during the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 799,546 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $67,810,000 after purchasing an additional 143,350 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CIEN. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $89.00 target price (down previously from $97.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Northland Securities raised shares of Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 5,648 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total value of $478,046.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 109,878 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,300,073.92. The trade was a 4.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.18, for a total value of $443,224.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 391,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,534,199.82. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 66,742 shares of company stock valued at $5,469,173. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $65.47 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $80.57 and a 200-day moving average of $73.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The company has a market capitalization of $9.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 114.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $101.44.

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.