Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Grows Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 12.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 110,842 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,242 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. owned about 0.08% of Ciena worth $9,401,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CIEN. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at approximately $57,861,000. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at about $56,997,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,416,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter valued at $35,403,000. Finally, LMR Partners LLP purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at $17,236,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.16, for a total transaction 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 approximately $4,435,601.52. This trade represents a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total transaction of $1,137,776.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 425,749 shares in the company, valued at $35,618,161.34. This represents a 3.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176 over the last quarter. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on CIEN shares. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Barclays boosted their price target on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.77.

Ciena Trading Down 3.3 %

NYSE CIEN opened at $78.08 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $43.30 and a one year high of $101.44. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $86.01 and its 200 day moving average price is $71.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 136.99, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

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.