Smithfield Trust Co Sells 195 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Smithfield Trust Co decreased its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 7.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,535 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 195 shares during the period. Smithfield Trust Co’s holdings in Ciena were worth $213,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in Ciena by 409.8% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 520 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted 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 valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the period. Kieckhefer Group LLC bought a new stake in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Ciena by 59.2% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total transaction of $519,588.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 398,549 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,453,129.09. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total transaction of $235,050.48. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,435,197.48. This represents a 5.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764 over the last ninety days. 0.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on CIEN shares. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.77.

Ciena Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $75.25 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $10.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 132.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $85.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $72.80. 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 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast 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.