Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Invests $545,000 in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN)

Key Points

• The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board acquired 9,021 shares of Ciena Corporation, valued at approximately $545,000, in the first quarter.
• Multiple hedge funds, including Price T Rowe Associates and Marshall Wace LLP, significantly increased their positions in Ciena during the last quarter, indicating institutional confidence in the company.
• Ciena's stock has experienced a substantial rise, currently trading at $95.11, with its 52-week high reaching $101.44, following strong revenue growth reported in its latest earnings release.

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 9,021 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $545,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CIEN. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $219,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 40.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,960 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $179,000 after acquiring an additional 851 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter worth about $2,398,000. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Ciena by 50.0% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 534 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 70.2% during the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,222 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 504 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Ciena to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Wall Street Zen raised Ciena from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 5th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Ciena from $65.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned 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 company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $85.54.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN traded up $3.00 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $96.38. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,488,458 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,708,168. Ciena Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $48.69 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44. 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 capitalization of $13.62 billion, a PE ratio of 133.86, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $76.34.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.46% and a return on equity of 5.08%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.27 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.57, for a total value of $28,899.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 43,618 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,601,538.26. This trade represents a 0.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 2,044 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.64, for a total value of $166,872.16. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 47,198 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,853,244.72. This represents a 4.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 35,469 shares of company stock valued at $2,817,891 in the last quarter. Corporate 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.