Maverick Capital Ltd. Purchases 5,221 Shares of Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Key Points

• Maverick Capital Ltd. increased its holdings in Ciena Corporation by 98.0% in the first quarter, owning 10,546 shares valued at approximately $637,000.
• Institutional investors now own 91.99% of Ciena's stock, with several funds, including Bessemer Group and MassMutual, significantly increasing their stakes.
• Ciena's stock received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with an average price target of $86.69, amid recent mixed feedback from analysts.

Maverick Capital Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 98.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 10,546 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after buying an additional 5,221 shares during the quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd.'s holdings in Ciena were worth $637,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,227,020 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $273,684,000 after buying an additional 49,996 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 113.7% during the 4th quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 2,169,406 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $183,987,000 after buying an additional 1,154,260 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter worth about $70,065,000. Analog Century Management LP raised its stake in Ciena by 33.0% in the 1st quarter. Analog Century Management LP now owns 841,311 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $50,840,000 after purchasing an additional 208,509 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in Ciena by 971.7% in the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 729,722 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $61,891,000 after purchasing an additional 661,630 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on CIEN. Argus lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $105.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a report on Thursday. B. Riley reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $113.00 target price (up from $90.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $78.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $114.32.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of Ciena stock traded down $0.35 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $116.57. 4,410,274 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,392,859. The stock has a market cap of $16.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.18, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.16. 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 firm's fifty day moving average price is $89.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $77.36. Ciena Corporation has a 12 month low of $49.21 and a 12 month high of $122.00.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last announced 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 3.10% and a return on equity of 6.61%. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.94, for a total value of $31,829.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 43,268 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,934,791.92. The trade was a 0.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 325,557 shares in the company, valued at $26,770,552.11. This trade represents a 2.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 39,769 shares of company stock worth $3,326,705 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company's stock.

Ciena Company 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.