Fruth Investment Management Acquires Shares of 2,500 Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Fruth Investment Management bought a new position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,500 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new position in Ciena in the third quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena by 152.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the period. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter worth approximately $59,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Up 5.3 %

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $92.15 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $83.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $68.01. The stock has a market cap of $13.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 161.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.88. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. This represents a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 57,581 shares of company stock valued at $4,875,548. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.77.

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.