Forsta AP Fonden Purchases Shares of 41,300 Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Forsta AP Fonden purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 41,300 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $9,659,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its holdings in Ciena by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 710 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $166,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena by 50.4% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 200 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc raised its holdings in Ciena by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,055 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $247,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the period. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 1,549 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena by 1.7% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,772 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $695,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Zacks Research raised Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Barclays raised their price target on Ciena from $279.00 to $372.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 6th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Ciena from $425.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Weiss Ratings raised Ciena from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on Ciena from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $406.61.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.05, for a total value of $1,659,171.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 272,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $153,163,683.45. This trade represents a 1.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 1,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $570.65, for a total value of $684,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 43,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,074,931.65. This represents a 2.66% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 41,222 shares of company stock valued at $17,831,763. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ciena Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $580.59 on Monday. Ciena Corporation has a 12-month low of $70.77 and a 12-month high of $605.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.81, a quick ratio of 2.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $500.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $342.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $82.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 369.80 and a beta of 1.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 4.47%.The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.64 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 5.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena’s product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.