Ritholtz Wealth Management Makes New Investment in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Ritholtz Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,765 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $306,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 50.0% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 534 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 34.7% during the first quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 636 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 15.4% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,147 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 65.6% during the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,593 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $96,000 after purchasing an additional 631 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 27.3% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,556 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $127,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CIEN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Northland Securities set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Monday, June 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $105.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $102.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. B. Riley reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $113.00 price target (up from $90.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $137.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total transaction of $1,185,555.32. Following the transaction, the director owned 54,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,653,914.88. The trade was a 13.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total value of $631,924.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 305,157 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,358,240.01. This trade represents a 2.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 45,374 shares of company stock worth $5,936,444. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $173.20 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $127.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $94.33. The company has a current ratio of 3.28, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market cap of $24.43 billion, a PE ratio of 178.55, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.15. Ciena Corporation has a 1 year low of $49.21 and a 1 year high of $177.79.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $844.44 million for the quarter. Ciena had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 3.10%. On average, analysts predict that Ciena Corporation 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.