Teacher Retirement System of Texas Has $2.70 Million Stake in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its position in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 20.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 44,641 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 7,673 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas' holdings in Ciena were worth $2,698,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 151 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Ciena by 328.2% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 73.7% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 151 shares during the period. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 77.2% in the fourth quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the period. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 66.7% in the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 640 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 256 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $65.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "underweight" rating and issued a $70.00 price target (down previously from $73.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Ciena from $98.00 to $75.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Ciena to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $84.08.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE CIEN traded down $0.46 on Friday, hitting $77.99. 1,638,172 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,139,086. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 3.40 and a quick ratio of 2.57. The business's fifty day moving average is $78.03 and its 200 day moving average is $75.85. Ciena Corporation has a 52 week low of $44.89 and a 52 week high of $101.44. The company has a market capitalization of $11.03 billion, a PE ratio of 108.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.11.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last posted 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). The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion for 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 business's revenue was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,325 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.50, for a total value of $187,162.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 84,833 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,829,056.50. This represents a 2.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.19, for a total transaction of $504,492.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 348,480 shares in the company, valued at $25,853,731.20. This trade represents a 1.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 41,919 shares of company stock valued at $3,115,199. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.