Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stake in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 1.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 327,017 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 4,105 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.23% of Ciena worth $19,762,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 73.7% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.1% during the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 16,649 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $1,006,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 77.2% during the fourth quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 31,897 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $2,705,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.60, for a total value of $25,410.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 45,883 shares in the company, valued at $3,331,105.80. The trade was a 0.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 2,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.93, for a total value of $199,825.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 202,370 shares of the company's stock, valued at $16,175,434.10. The trade was a 1.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,919 shares of company stock valued at $3,115,199. 0.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock traded down $0.46 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $77.99. The stock had a trading volume of 1,638,172 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,128,692. The firm's 50 day moving average is $77.93 and its 200 day moving average is $76.00. Ciena Corporation has a one year low of $44.89 and a one year high of $101.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 108.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 3.40, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

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 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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.27 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Northland Securities set a $100.00 target price on Ciena in a report on Monday, June 30th. Evercore ISI restated a "mixed" rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Ciena from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, July 5th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $84.08.

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.