Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Sold by Informed Momentum Co LLC

Key Points

• Informed Momentum Co LLC reduced its stake in Ciena Corporation by 48.8% in Q1, bringing its holdings to 32,512 shares valued at approximately $1.97 million.
• Institutional investors and hedge funds now own 91.99% of Ciena's stock, with several firms increasing their stakes significantly in the first quarter.
• Despite reporting earnings per share (EPS) of $0.42, Ciena missed analysts' expectations of $0.50, although revenue for the quarter was up 23.6% to $1.13 billion.

Informed Momentum Co LLC reduced its stake in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 48.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,512 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 31,034 shares during the quarter. Informed Momentum Co LLC's holdings in Ciena were worth $1,965,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CIEN. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Ciena in the 1st quarter worth about $219,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 40.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,960 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $179,000 after buying an additional 851 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,398,000. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 50.0% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 534 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 70.2% during the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,222 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 504 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on CIEN shares. UBS Group increased their target price on Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. B. Riley reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $90.00 price objective (up from $89.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Wall Street Zen raised Ciena from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Ciena from $83.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $100.00 target price on Ciena in a research report on Monday, June 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $85.54.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,325 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.50, for a total value of $187,162.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 84,833 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,829,056.50. This represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 2,044 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.64, for a total transaction of $166,872.16. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 47,198 shares in the company, 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 25,819 shares of company stock valued at $2,047,280. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company's stock.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN stock traded down $0.53 on Friday, reaching $90.89. The company had a trading volume of 1,478,828 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,621,580. Ciena Corporation has a 1 year low of $49.21 and a 1 year high of $101.44. 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's fifty day moving average is $83.43 and its 200 day moving average is $76.65. The company has a market cap of $12.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 126.24, a PEG ratio of 2.05 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 analysts' consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.08). The company 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%. Ciena's quarterly revenue was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.27 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

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.