14,098 Shares in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) Purchased by Lecap Asset Management Ltd.

Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 14,098 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $852,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 108.6% during the fourth quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 290 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 73.7% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 328.2% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 279 shares during the period. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 77.2% in the 4th quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the period. Finally, Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 18,888 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.88, for a total transaction of $1,131,013.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 89,258 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,344,769.04. This trade represents a 17.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.90, for a total value of $488,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 368,880 shares of the company's stock, valued at $26,522,472. The trade was a 1.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 49,638 shares of company stock valued at $3,345,797 over the last 90 days. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CIEN. Citigroup reduced their price target on Ciena from $98.00 to $75.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Northland Securities set a $85.00 target price on Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. Northland Capmk raised shares of Ciena from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen lowered Ciena from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, June 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $83.15.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN stock traded up $0.79 during trading on Friday, reaching $82.30. The stock had a trading volume of 3,397,424 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,102,975. The company has a current ratio of 3.40, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market cap of $11.63 billion, a PE ratio of 114.31, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.12. The stock's 50 day moving average is $75.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.35. Ciena Corporation has a 52 week low of $44.89 and a 52 week high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.08% and a net margin of 2.46%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.27 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate 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.