BNP Paribas Financial Markets Buys 400,713 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 267.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 550,290 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 400,713 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets owned 0.38% of Ciena worth $24,769,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $101,000. Smithfield Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 74.5% during the 3rd quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 2,999 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $142,000 after buying an additional 1,280 shares during the period. Operose Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. Operose Advisors LLC now owns 3,214 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $152,000 after buying an additional 514 shares during the period. Claret Asset Management Corp bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $203,000. Finally, Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $207,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 8,332 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.86, for a total transaction of $473,757.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 415,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,635,223.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 8,332 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.86, for a total value of $473,757.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 415,674 shares of the company's stock, valued at $23,635,223.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.80, for a total transaction of $186,636.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 385,109 shares in the company, valued at $17,252,883.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 36,351 shares of company stock worth $1,921,835. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on CIEN shares. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They set a "sell" rating and a $44.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $56.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ciena from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $58.79.

Ciena Trading Up 0.3 %

Ciena stock traded up $0.15 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $48.72. 1,290,378 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,914,495. The company has a quick ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 4.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.04 billion, a PE ratio of 31.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $48.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $48.68. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $39.94 and a 52 week high of $63.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 5.22% and a return on equity of 9.92%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.48 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.