Handelsbanken Fonder AB Boosts Stock Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 24.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 39,062 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,700 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Ciena were worth $3,313,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Greenleaf Trust grew its stake in Ciena by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 4,978 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $422,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in Ciena by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 4,469 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $379,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in Ciena by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Ciena by 59.2% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. 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 report on Tuesday, January 28th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of 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 reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.77.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at $4,256,582.77. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the completion of 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 56,642 shares of company stock valued at $4,818,176 in the last 90 days. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $84.15 on Monday. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $101.44. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $86.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $71.44. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a market cap of $12.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 147.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88.

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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Ciena Company 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.