Magnetar Financial LLC Makes New Investment in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Key Points

• Magnetar Financial LLC has invested approximately $3.62 million in Ciena Corporation by acquiring nearly 60,000 shares during the first quarter.
• Recent insider transactions revealed that CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock, reducing his ownership by 2.13%.
• Ciena has seen significant interest from institutional investors, with 91.99% of the company's stock held by them, indicating strong market confidence.

Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 59,933 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $3,622,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CIEN. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in Ciena by 15.4% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,147 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the period. Bayforest Capital Ltd increased its position in Ciena by 34.7% in the 1st quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 636 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 50.0% during 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 in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 38,910 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $2,351,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 16,649 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $1,006,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,325 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.50, for a total transaction of $187,162.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 84,833 shares in the company, valued at $6,829,056.50. This represents a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the company's 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 transaction, the senior vice president owned 43,268 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,934,791.92. This trade represents a 0.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 39,769 shares of company stock valued at $3,326,705 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group raised their price objective on Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Morgan Stanley reissued an "underweight" rating and issued a $70.00 target price (down from $73.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Wall Street Zen cut Ciena from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, August 22nd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $88.08.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of Ciena stock traded up $17.10 on Thursday, hitting $111.92. The stock had a trading volume of 6,807,851 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,301,292. Ciena Corporation has a twelve month low of $49.21 and a twelve month high of $122.00. The business's 50 day moving average is $87.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.98. The company has a quick ratio of 2.57, a current ratio of 3.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market cap of $15.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 155.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.16.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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). Ciena had a net margin of 2.46% and a return on equity of 5.08%. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 23.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS 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.