Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC Has $562,000 Stock Position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN)

Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 28.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,305 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 3,668 shares during the period. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC's holdings in Ciena were worth $562,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 195.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $392,345,000 after buying an additional 3,062,883 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc lifted its position in Ciena by 113.7% in the 4th quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 2,169,406 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $183,987,000 after purchasing an additional 1,154,260 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in Ciena by 4,215.9% in the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 899,828 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $76,314,000 after purchasing an additional 878,979 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Ciena by 971.7% in the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 729,722 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $61,891,000 after purchasing an additional 661,630 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Keystone Investors PTE Ltd. bought a new stake in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $45,341,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on CIEN. Morgan Stanley restated an "underweight" rating and set a $70.00 price target (down from $73.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $76.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Ciena to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $100.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Monday, June 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $84.08.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of Ciena stock traded down $0.46 on Friday, reaching $77.99. The stock had a trading volume of 1,638,172 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,139,086. The stock has a market cap of $11.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 108.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.11. Ciena Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $44.89 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44. The business's 50-day moving average price is $78.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $75.93. 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 (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 the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.46% and a return on equity of 5.08%. 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 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.19, for a total transaction of $504,492.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 348,480 shares in the company, valued at $25,853,731.20. This represents a 1.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,325 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.50, for a total transaction of $187,162.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 84,833 shares of the company's stock, 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 quarter, insiders sold 41,919 shares of company stock worth $3,115,199. Corporate 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.