Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Has $725,000 Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lessened its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 25.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,548 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 2,908 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV’s holdings in Ciena were worth $725,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,316,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,299,004,000 after buying an additional 139,941 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its holdings in Ciena by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,236,920 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $444,143,000 after buying an additional 17,447 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Ciena by 195.9% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $392,345,000 after buying an additional 3,062,883 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Ciena by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,419,947 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $205,301,000 after buying an additional 11,933 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Ciena by 26.2% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,238,284 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $105,019,000 after buying an additional 257,197 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on CIEN shares. Citigroup cut their price objective on Ciena from $98.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Barclays set a $100.00 target price on Ciena and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their target price on Ciena from $73.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Ciena from $88.00 to $76.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.62.

Ciena Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $74.68 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $10.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 131.02, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $64.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $74.16. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $44.69 and a 52 week high of $101.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.16, for a total transaction of $31,556.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,435,601.52. This represents a 0.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total value of $519,588.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 398,549 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,453,129.09. The trade was a 1.68% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 49,288 shares of company stock valued at $3,211,852. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Ciena

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.