Yousif Capital Management LLC Has $4.46 Million Stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Yousif Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 52,525 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,673 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $4,455,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the second quarter worth $202,000. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Ciena by 640.7% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 64,466 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,106,000 after acquiring an additional 55,763 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning increased its holdings in Ciena by 13.7% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 8,799 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $424,000 after purchasing an additional 1,062 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in Ciena by 10.4% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 29,614 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,427,000 after purchasing an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the second quarter valued at about $221,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the subject of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.77.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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 transaction 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 represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 57,581 shares of company stock worth $4,875,548 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $89.74 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 157.44, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.88. 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 quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $84.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.46.

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

Ciena Company 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.