First Trust Advisors LP Lowers Stock Holdings in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

First Trust Advisors LP decreased its position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 14.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 436,945 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 75,515 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned 0.31% of Ciena worth $169,635,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter worth $2,747,810,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 30,114.5% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,870,677 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $671,365,000 after buying an additional 2,861,176 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 53.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,051,625 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $947,554,000 after buying an additional 1,404,132 shares during the last quarter. Atreides Management LP bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the second quarter valued at about $102,705,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 2,174.2% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,143,855 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $166,625,000 after buying an additional 1,093,557 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CIEN. TD Cowen increased their target price on Ciena from $425.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Ciena from $350.00 to $720.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Ciena from $405.00 to $490.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Argus set a $650.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $450.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $530.56.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $398.12 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.11. Ciena Corporation has a 1 year low of $84.38 and a 1 year high of $637.51. The company's 50-day moving average is $484.11 and its 200 day moving average is $408.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $56.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 132.71 and a beta of 1.27.

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

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, CFO Marc D. Graff sold 126 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.20, for a total value of $58,741.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 126,955 shares in the company, valued at $59,186,421. The trade was a 0.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,629 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.20, for a total value of $1,225,639.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 62,382 shares of the company's stock, valued at $29,082,488.40. This represents a 4.04% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 21,627 shares of company stock worth $10,974,985 in the last ninety days. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ciena Company 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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