Swiss National Bank Reduces Position in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Swiss National Bank decreased its holdings in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 3.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 275,300 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 8,700 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.19% of Ciena worth $16,636,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in Ciena by 73.7% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd grew its holdings in Ciena by 34.7% in the first quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 636 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 66.7% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 640 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 256 shares during the period. Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at $42,000. Finally, AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 9,162.5% during the first quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 741 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 733 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.57, for a total transaction of $28,899.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 43,618 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,601,538.26. This represents a 0.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction of $559,164.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 325,557 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $26,770,552.11. This represents a 2.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 25,819 shares of company stock worth $2,047,280 in the last 90 days. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Evercore ISI reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $65.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Ciena to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ciena from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $85.54.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN stock traded up $0.04 on Monday, reaching $90.91. 338,848 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,271,098. The company has a market cap of $12.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 126.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $83.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a current ratio of 3.40. Ciena Corporation has a 1 year low of $49.21 and a 1 year high of $101.44.

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