Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Bought by Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P.

Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 21.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 799,546 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 143,350 shares during the quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. owned approximately 0.56% of Ciena worth $67,810,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter worth $57,861,000. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC bought a new stake in Ciena in the fourth quarter worth $56,997,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new position in Ciena during the third quarter worth $35,403,000. LMR Partners LLP bought a new position in Ciena during the third quarter valued at about $17,236,000. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 119.6% during the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 239,389 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $14,744,000 after acquiring an additional 130,399 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Trading Down 3.6 %

CIEN stock opened at $89.74 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market cap of $12.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 157.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.88. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $101.44. The business’s 50 day moving average is $84.04 and its 200-day moving average is $68.58.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (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 quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.86, for a total value of $577,048.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 412,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,974,964.14. This trade represents a 1.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. This trade represents a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 57,581 shares of company stock worth $4,875,548 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup lifted their price target 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Northland Securities boosted their target price 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. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.