Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV Cuts Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV trimmed its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 1.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 97,543 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,687 shares during the period. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV’s holdings in Ciena were worth $5,895,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Ciena by 108.6% in the 4th quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 290 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 328.2% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 279 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena by 73.7% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 356 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 151 shares during the period. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in Ciena by 77.2% in the fourth quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 420 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its position in shares of Ciena by 66.7% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.67, for a total transaction of $27,534.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,233 shares in the company, valued at $3,637,150.11. This trade represents a 0.75% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.18, for a total transaction of $443,224.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 391,749 shares in the company, valued at $25,534,199.82. This represents a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 51,788 shares of company stock worth $3,431,319. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $72.88 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $70.07 and its 200 day moving average is $75.84. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $44.69 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44. The company has a market capitalization of $10.36 billion, a PE ratio of 127.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.12. 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 (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.08). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.27 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Northland Securities set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday. Barclays set a $100.00 price target on Ciena and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen lowered Ciena from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Evercore ISI reiterated a “mixed” rating on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on Ciena from $98.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $83.15.

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.