Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Purchased by First Business Financial Services Inc.

First Business Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 5.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,474 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,113 shares during the quarter. First Business Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $1,906,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Greenleaf Trust increased its stake in Ciena by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 4,978 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $422,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in Ciena by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,459 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $887,000 after acquiring an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Ciena by 3.8% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its stake in Ciena by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 4,469 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $379,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Ciena by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,914 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $417,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of CIEN opened at $75.25 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 132.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $43.30 and a one year high of $101.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $85.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $72.80.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $17,194,102.73. This trade represents a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.16, for a total value of $31,556.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,197 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,435,601.52. This represents a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on CIEN. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays upped their price target on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.77.

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.