HighTower Advisors LLC Buys 9,613 Shares of Ciena Corporation $CIEN

HighTower Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 77.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,095 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,613 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $3,219,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Ciena by 0.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,088,445 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,227,143,000 after acquiring an additional 103,199 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,243,053 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $426,420,000 after purchasing an additional 359,579 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 10.4% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,495,795 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $284,313,000 after purchasing an additional 329,821 shares during the period. Senvest Management LLC raised its position in shares of Ciena by 12.4% in the second quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 1,655,012 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $134,602,000 after buying an additional 182,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atreides Management LP bought a new stake in Ciena during the second quarter valued at $102,705,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on Ciena to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Ciena from $138.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Northland Securities set a $190.00 target price on shares of Ciena and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. B. Riley Financial reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $260.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $252.13.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN stock opened at $341.11 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $48.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 401.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.13. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $263.93 and its 200 day moving average is $195.25. Ciena Corporation has a 52 week low of $49.21 and a 52 week high of $365.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a current ratio of 2.73.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.59% and a return on equity of 8.38%. The company’s revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.54 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 8,554 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.66, for a total value of $1,921,741.64. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,422 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,116,746.52. The trade was a 47.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 21,383 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.89, for a total transaction of $5,300,631.87. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 91,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,747,625.85. This represents a 18.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 160,083 shares of company stock worth $37,204,740. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.