AIA Group Ltd Trims Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

AIA Group Ltd cut its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 5.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 8,569 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 495 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Ciena were worth $386,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in Ciena by 0.6% during the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 36,296 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,227,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 0.9% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 28,651 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,737,000 after purchasing an additional 252 shares during the period. Janney Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Ciena by 2.8% during the third quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC now owns 9,774 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $462,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its stake in Ciena by 1.0% during the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 28,563 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,214,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its stake in Ciena by 3.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 8,321 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $393,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $44.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.79.

Ciena Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE CIEN opened at $43.57 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 4.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $39.94 and a 52 week high of $63.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.30 billion, a PE ratio of 28.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.99. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $51.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $48.17.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.18. Ciena had a net margin of 5.22% and a return on equity of 9.92%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.48 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.80, for a total value of $186,636.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 385,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,252,883.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $26,442.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 41,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,052,464.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.80, for a total transaction of $186,636.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 385,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,252,883.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 107,189 shares of company stock worth $5,754,880. Corporate insiders own 0.83% 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.