Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Stock Position Lifted by Amalgamated Bank

Amalgamated Bank grew its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 68,806 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 273 shares during the quarter. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Ciena were worth $5,835,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CIEN. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after buying an additional 108,407 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,427,000 after acquiring an additional 53,078 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Ciena by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $148,348,000 after purchasing an additional 33,074 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Ciena by 0.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 955,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $58,850,000 after acquiring an additional 6,605 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $57,861,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $78.08 on Friday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $11.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 136.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $86.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $71.98. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Northland Securities raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.77.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.16, for a total value of $31,556.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,435,601.52. The trade was a 0.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the transaction, the director now owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at $5,042,121.12. This represents a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 56,642 shares of company stock valued at $4,818,176. 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.