Ausbil Investment Management Ltd Takes Position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN)

Ausbil Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 9,679 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $585,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 8,794 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $744,000 after buying an additional 479 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 4,469 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $379,000 after buying an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in Ciena in the fourth quarter worth approximately $221,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its position in Ciena by 159.8% during the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 218,980 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $18,572,000 after buying an additional 134,694 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings in Ciena by 24.6% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 39,062 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $3,313,000 after purchasing an additional 7,700 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen cut Ciena from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, June 7th. Citigroup cut their target price on Ciena from $98.00 to $75.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Ciena from $76.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Ciena from $44.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $83.15.

Ciena Stock Up 2.7%

Shares of NYSE CIEN traded up $2.14 during trading on Thursday, hitting $81.57. 3,138,870 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,093,596. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a current ratio of 3.40. The business's fifty day moving average is $74.73 and its 200 day moving average is $76.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 113.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.12. Ciena Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $44.89 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.08). Ciena had a net margin of 2.46% and a return on equity of 5.08%. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.27 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 23.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.54, for a total value of $404,872.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 375,680 shares of the company's stock, valued at $22,367,987.20. This represents a 1.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 18,888 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.88, for a total value of $1,131,013.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 89,258 shares in the company, valued at $5,344,769.04. This trade represents a 17.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 49,638 shares of company stock valued at $3,345,797 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company's stock.

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.