Corient Private Wealth LLC Raises Stock Position in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Key Points

• Corient Private Wealth LLC massively increased its Ciena stake in the fourth quarter, adding over 2.86 million shares and ending with 2.87 million shares valued at about $671.4 million, or roughly 2.03% of the company.
• Wall Street remains broadly positive on Ciena, with 13 analysts rating it a Buy and seven a Hold. The stock carries an average “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $530.56.
• Ciena posted strong quarterly results, reporting EPS of $1.64 versus the $1.46 estimate and revenue of $1.57 billion, up 39.5% year over year. Despite the strong earnings, insiders have recently sold shares, including SVP Brodie Gage and SVP Jason Phipps.

Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 30,114.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,870,677 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,861,176 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC owned approximately 2.03% of Ciena worth $671,365,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Community Bank N.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 71.0% during the 4th quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 106 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 50.4% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 200 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in Ciena by 104.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 204 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hilltop National Bank purchased a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on CIEN. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Ciena from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Argus set a $650.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 5th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $285.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $470.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $615.00 target price on Ciena in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $530.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 1,200 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.10, for a total value of $559,320.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 42,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,921,580.10. This trade represents a 2.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 22,014 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.80, for a total transaction of $9,021,337.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 68 shares of the company's stock, valued at $27,866.40. This trade represents a 99.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 45,374 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,470. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN opened at $428.02 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.73. Ciena Corporation has a 1-year low of $73.55 and a 1-year high of $637.51. The company has a 50-day moving average of $521.05 and a 200-day moving average of $371.61. The company has a market capitalization of $60.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 142.67 and a beta of 1.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 18.15% and a net margin of 7.87%.The firm had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. Ciena's quarterly revenue was up 39.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Ciena Corporation will post 5.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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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