Impax Asset Management Group plc Boosts Holdings in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN)

Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 15.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 149,914 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 19,500 shares during the quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc owned 0.11% of Ciena worth $9,059,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. US Bancorp DE grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,459 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $887,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in shares of Ciena by 643.1% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,192 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $186,000 after acquiring an additional 1,897 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Ciena by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 959,831 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $81,403,000 after acquiring an additional 4,315 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 41,557 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $3,524,000 after purchasing an additional 9,274 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in Ciena by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 8,400 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $712,000 after purchasing an additional 412 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 2,044 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 47,198 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,853,244.72. This represents a 4.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,325 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.50, for a total value of $187,162.50. Following the completion of the sale, 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 valued at $3,115,199. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN traded down $1.27 during trading on Monday, reaching $80.11. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,410,526 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,118,429. 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 Corporation has a 52-week low of $44.89 and a 52-week high of $101.44. The company's fifty day moving average price is $77.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $76.07. The company has a market capitalization of $11.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 111.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.11.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share (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 return on equity of 5.08% and a net margin of 2.46%. Ciena's quarterly revenue was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CIEN. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Ciena from $65.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. 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. 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. 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. Finally, Barclays set a $100.00 price target on Ciena and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $84.31.

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.