Ciena Corporation $CIEN Shares Sold by Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC

Key Points

• Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC significantly reduced its stake in Ciena Corporation by 90.7% during the first quarter, now holding only 41,711 shares.
• Ciena's stock traded down 2.5% recently, reaching $86.57, and has a market capitalization of $12.24 billion.
• Several research firms have increased their price targets for Ciena, with B. Riley and Needham & Company both setting targets at $90.00, maintaining a "buy" rating.

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC decreased its position in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 90.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 41,711 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 407,189 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC's holdings in Ciena were worth $2,521,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 60.5% in the 1st quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 6,009 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $363,000 after purchasing an additional 2,266 shares during the last quarter. Prudential PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 16.7% in the 1st quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 5,869 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $355,000 after purchasing an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. AIA Group Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 17.7% in the 1st quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 3,525 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $213,000 after purchasing an additional 530 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter valued at $70,065,000. Finally, King Luther Capital Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter valued at $1,905,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,325 shares of the firm'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 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 trade represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.23, for a total transaction of $559,164.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 325,557 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $26,770,552.11. This represents a 2.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 32,969 shares of company stock valued at $2,694,781 in the last 90 days. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ciena Stock Up 2.7%

CIEN traded up $2.4020 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $89.7620. 1,971,296 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,606,376. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $85.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $76.77. The company has a market cap of $12.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 124.67, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.11. Ciena Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $49.21 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 3.40 and a quick ratio of 2.57.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.08). The firm 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.27 earnings per share. Ciena has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, 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 equities analysts have weighed in on CIEN shares. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 6th. B. Riley reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $90.00 target price (up previously from $89.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Northland Securities set a $100.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $85.54.

About Ciena

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.