VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Acquires Shares of 31,385 Ciena Corporation $CIEN

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new stake in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 31,385 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,553,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 35.0% during the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,708,540 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $220,286,000 after buying an additional 702,909 shares during the last quarter. Ion Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 6.3% during the first quarter. Ion Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,356,752 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $81,989,000 after buying an additional 80,426 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 375.4% during the second quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,235,696 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $100,499,000 after buying an additional 975,792 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter valued at approximately $70,065,000. Finally, Analog Century Management LP boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 33.0% during the first quarter. Analog Century Management LP now owns 841,311 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $50,840,000 after buying an additional 208,509 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Down 2.1%

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $169.54 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $23.92 billion, a PE ratio of 174.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 3.28 and a quick ratio of 2.52. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $128.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $94.86. Ciena Corporation has a 1 year low of $49.21 and a 1 year high of $177.79.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced 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 during the quarter. Ciena had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 3.10%. Analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the topic of several analyst reports. BNP Paribas Exane raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 13th. BNP Paribas set a $185.00 target price on Ciena and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Ciena from $120.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on Ciena from $90.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Ciena from $105.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $137.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,863 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.14, for a total transaction of $262,943.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 43,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,143,965.34. This represents a 4.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total value of $631,924.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 305,157 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,358,240.01. The trade was a 2.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 45,374 shares of company stock worth $5,936,444 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

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.