Congress Asset Management Co. Purchases New Shares in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Congress Asset Management Co. purchased a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 6,293 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $380,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 108.6% during the fourth quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 290 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 73.7% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 328.2% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 77.2% during the fourth quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Picton Mahoney Asset Management acquired a new stake in Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Ciena from $98.00 to $75.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Barclays set a $100.00 target price on shares of Ciena and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $76.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, B. Riley restated a "buy" rating and set a $90.00 price target (up previously from $89.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $83.15.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN stock traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $72.44. 3,845,168 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,410,529. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.30 billion, a PE ratio of 127.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a 50-day moving average of $70.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $75.98. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $44.89 and a 52 week high of $101.44. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. Ciena's revenue for the quarter was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.27 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.67, for a total transaction of $27,534.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,233 shares in the company, valued at $3,637,150.11. The trade was a 0.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.88, for a total value of $172,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 207,370 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,283,645.60. This represents a 1.19% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 51,788 shares of company stock worth $3,431,319. Insiders own 0.93% of the company's stock.

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.