12th Street Asset Management Company LLC Raises Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

12th Street Asset Management Company LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 29.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 309,133 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 69,876 shares during the quarter. Ciena accounts for about 4.3% of 12th Street Asset Management Company LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. 12th Street Asset Management Company LLC owned about 0.22% of Ciena worth $26,218,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake 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 worth $148,348,000 after acquiring an additional 33,074 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management purchased a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $245,000. US Bancorp DE grew its position in Ciena by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,459 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $887,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $421,000. Finally, Atria Investments Inc acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,988,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Down 6.2 %

Shares of CIEN opened at $62.30 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $43.30 and a 12 month high of $101.44. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $83.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $73.22. The stock has a market cap of $8.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 109.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the topic of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Northland Securities upgraded Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $75.00 in a report on Wednesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.38.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. This trade represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764 in the last quarter. Company 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.