Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Sold by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 63.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 80,786 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 138,194 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.06% of Ciena worth $4,882,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth about $219,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings 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 worth $179,000 after purchasing an additional 851 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth about $2,398,000. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 50.0% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 534 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 44,711 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $3,792,000 after purchasing an additional 669 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CIEN shares. B. Riley restated a "buy" rating and issued a $90.00 target price (up previously from $89.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Morgan Stanley restated an "underweight" rating and issued a $70.00 target price (down previously from $73.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Ciena from $83.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $85.54.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock traded up $1.40 on Friday, hitting $88.59. The company had a trading volume of 1,115,963 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,030,458. The firm has a market cap of $12.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 123.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $79.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $75.93. The company has a quick ratio of 2.57, a current ratio of 3.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Ciena Corporation has a twelve month low of $44.89 and a twelve month high of $101.44.

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). Ciena had a return on equity of 5.08% and a net margin of 2.46%. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.27 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 325,557 shares of the company's stock, valued at $26,770,552.11. This trade represents a 2.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,325 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.50, for a total value of $187,162.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 84,833 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,829,056.50. This trade represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 42,269 shares of company stock valued at $3,306,811. Insiders own 0.93% of the company's stock.

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.