3,200 Shares in Ciena Corporation $CIEN Bought by Milestone Asset Management LLC

Key Points

• Milestone Asset Management bought a new stake of 3,200 Ciena shares in Q4 valued at about $748,000, and institutional investors now own roughly 91.99% of the company.
• Ciena beat quarterly expectations with $1.35 EPS vs. $1.17 expected and revenue up 33.1% year-over-year to $1.43 billion, prompting multiple analysts to raise price targets and a consensus "Moderate Buy" with a $355.59 target.
• The stock is trading near its 52-week high (opened at $499) with a high valuation (P/E ~318), while insiders sold about $16.6 million of shares in the past three months.

Milestone Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 3,200 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $748,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,993,000. Convergence Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the third quarter worth approximately $1,726,000. KBC Group NV raised its position in Ciena by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 31,161 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $7,288,000 after acquiring an additional 3,156 shares during the period. Peak Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 222.7% during the 4th quarter. Peak Financial Advisors LLC now owns 11,596 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $2,712,000 after acquiring an additional 8,003 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Semanteon Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at $568,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company's stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $499.00 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $70.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 317.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.01. Ciena Corporation has a 52-week low of $62.31 and a 52-week high of $522.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.14 and a current ratio of 2.81. The firm's fifty day moving average is $390.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $275.84.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 4.47%.The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.64 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ciena Corporation will post 5.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on CIEN shares. Evercore set a $330.00 target price on Ciena in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Wolfe Research restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $375.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Ciena from $380.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Ciena from $320.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $230.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, March 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $355.59.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $359.53, for a total transaction of $1,061,332.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 293,084 shares in the company, valued at approximately $105,372,490.52. This represents a 1.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 22,014 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.80, for a total transaction of $9,021,337.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 68 shares of the company's stock, valued at $27,866.40. This trade represents a 99.69% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 42,974 shares of company stock valued at $16,615,505 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

Ciena Profile

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.

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