Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Has $2.52 Million Stake in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 90.7% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 41,711 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 407,189 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $2,521,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Ciena by 195.9% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $392,345,000 after buying an additional 3,062,883 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $70,065,000. Polar Capital Holdings Plc lifted its holdings in Ciena by 113.7% in the fourth quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 2,169,406 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $183,987,000 after buying an additional 1,154,260 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in Ciena by 971.7% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 729,722 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,891,000 after buying an additional 661,630 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Ciena by 26.2% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,238,284 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $105,019,000 after buying an additional 257,197 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Evercore ISI restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. Northland Securities set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Monday, June 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, July 5th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Ciena to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $65.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $85.54.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.57, for a total transaction of $28,899.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 43,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,601,538.26. This represents a 0.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.50, for a total transaction of $187,162.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 84,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,829,056.50. This trade represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 25,819 shares of company stock worth $2,047,280 over the last three months. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ciena Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $90.89 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $83.43 and a 200-day moving average of $76.56. The company has a quick ratio of 2.57, a current ratio of 3.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Ciena Corporation has a 12-month low of $49.21 and a 12-month high of $101.44. The company has a market capitalization of $12.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 126.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.11.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.08). Ciena had a return on equity of 5.08% and a net margin of 2.46%. The company 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 earned $0.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 23.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.