HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 25,525 Shares of Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Key Points

• HighTower Advisors LLC has significantly reduced its holdings in Ciena Corporation by 66.9%, selling 25,525 shares and now owning 12,624 shares worth approximately $763,000.
• Several institutional investors have increased their stakes in Ciena, with National Bank of Canada FI raising its position by 15.4% and Bessemer Group Inc., by 50%, reflecting ongoing investor interest in the company.
• Ciena's recent quarterly earnings report showed a revenue increase of 23.6% year-over-year, but the company missed the consensus earnings estimate by $0.08 per share.

HighTower Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 66.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,624 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 25,525 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC's holdings in Ciena were worth $763,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter worth approximately $219,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 40.4% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,960 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $179,000 after acquiring an additional 851 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,398,000. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 50.0% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 534 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC increased its stake in Ciena by 28.6% during the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 48,879 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $2,954,000 after buying an additional 10,856 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "underweight" rating and set a $70.00 target price (down from $73.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Northland Securities set a $100.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $78.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Ciena from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Ciena to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $86.69.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.94, for a total transaction of $31,829.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 43,268 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,934,791.92. The trade was a 0.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 2,044 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.64, for a total value of $166,872.16. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 47,198 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,853,244.72. The trade was a 4.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 32,969 shares of company stock worth $2,694,781 over the last three months. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of CIEN traded down $0.86 on Tuesday, reaching $93.11. The stock had a trading volume of 1,304,837 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,245,366. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 129.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a current ratio of 3.40. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $87.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $76.74. Ciena Corporation has a 12-month low of $49.21 and a 12-month 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 firm had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.09 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.46% and a return on equity of 5.08%. The company'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 business earned $0.27 EPS. Ciena has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current 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.