Wealthfront Advisers LLC Takes $746,000 Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Wealthfront Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 8,802 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $746,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at about $57,861,000. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $56,997,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,416,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,403,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $40,919,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $63.84 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $9.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.00, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The company’s 50 day moving average is $82.30 and its 200 day moving average is $73.31. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total value of $1,137,776.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. The trade was a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was 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 directly owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764 over the last ninety days. 0.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $89.00 price target (down previously from $97.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities raised shares of Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $60.00 to $75.00 in a report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price target on shares of Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.38.

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.