AlphaQuest LLC Grows Position in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Key Points

• AlphaQuest LLC increased its stake in Ciena Corporation by 450.6% in the first quarter, now owning 6,150 shares valued at $372,000.
• CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock for approximately $615,672, reducing his ownership by 2.13% to about $28.24 million.
• Ciena's earnings report revealed a net revenue of $1.13 billion, exceeding analysts' expectations, but the EPS missed consensus estimates by $0.08.

AlphaQuest LLC raised its position in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 450.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,150 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 5,033 shares during the quarter. AlphaQuest LLC's holdings in Ciena were worth $372,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Ciena during the first quarter valued at approximately $219,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Ciena by 40.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,960 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $179,000 after purchasing an additional 851 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in Ciena during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,398,000. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Ciena by 50.0% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 534 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Ciena by 28.6% during the first quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 48,879 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $2,954,000 after buying an additional 10,856 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company's stock.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN traded down $4.04 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $93.85. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,230,646 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,680,100. The business's 50-day moving average price is $87.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $76.71. Ciena Corporation has a 12 month low of $49.21 and a 12 month high of $101.44. The stock has a market cap of $13.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 130.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 3.40, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.27 EPS. The company's revenue was up 23.6% on a year-over-year basis. Ciena has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $83.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "underweight" rating and set a $70.00 price objective (down previously from $73.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Evercore ISI reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ciena from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $78.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $86.69.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.23, for a total value of $559,164.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 325,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,770,552.11. This represents a 2.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,325 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.50, for a total transaction of $187,162.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 84,833 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,829,056.50. The trade was a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 32,969 shares of company stock worth $2,694,781. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.