Kestra Investment Management LLC Makes New $97,000 Investment in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,144 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $97,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the period. Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at $59,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 59.2% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 241.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on CIEN. Morgan Stanley downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.77.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total value of $235,050.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,607 shares in the company, valued at $4,435,197.48. This represents a 5.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. This represents a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176 over the last 90 days. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $86.58 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week 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 market cap of $12.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 151.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.88. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $86.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $70.83.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted 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 net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.