Pacer Advisors Inc. Purchases 984 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 4.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 24,544 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 984 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $2,082,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 44.4% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,056 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $174,000 after buying an additional 632 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in Ciena by 59.2% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Ciena by 26.7% in the 4th quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,071 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $600,000 after purchasing an additional 1,491 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $421,000. Finally, Boston Common Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $256,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas cut Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.77.

Ciena Stock Up 3.0 %

Shares of CIEN opened at $87.20 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 52 week low of $43.30 and a 52 week high of $101.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 152.98, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $82.06 and a 200-day moving average of $67.09.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly 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 firm 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 business posted $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 192,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 50,781 shares of company stock worth $4,298,500. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ciena 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.