Estate Counselors LLC Cuts Stake in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Estate Counselors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 59.8% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 7,562 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 11,236 shares during the period. Estate Counselors LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $2,936,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at $395,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in Ciena by 139.6% in the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 5,253 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $317,000 after purchasing an additional 3,061 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ciena by 1.4% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 222,054 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $13,419,000 after purchasing an additional 3,117 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth boosted its position in Ciena by 14.6% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 5,762 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $348,000 after buying an additional 733 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. purchased a new stake in Ciena during the second quarter valued at about $234,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $376.25 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $474.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $411.40. Ciena Corporation has a 12-month low of $84.41 and a 12-month high of $637.51. The firm has a market cap of $53.26 billion, a PE ratio of 125.42 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 7.87% and a return on equity of 18.15%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ciena Corporation will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Ciena from $285.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $615.00 target price on Ciena in a report on Friday, May 29th. Zacks Research upgraded Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Northland Securities set a $450.00 price target on Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Ciena from $405.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $530.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 1,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $570.65, for a total transaction of $684,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 43,941 shares in the company, valued at $25,074,931.65. This represents a 2.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.33, for a total value of $739,599.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 42,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,992,499.76. The trade was a 3.57% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 21,627 shares of company stock worth $10,974,985 over the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Company Profile

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.