Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Purchases 1,092,980 Shares of Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 95.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,236,835 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,092,980 shares during the quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership’s holdings in Ciena were worth $523,129,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,107 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,194,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 71.0% in the 4th quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 106 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,629 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $381,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the period. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 710 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $166,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the period. Finally, Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 50.4% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 200 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $565.92, for a total transaction of $1,670,595.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 269,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $152,547,697.44. This trade represents a 1.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 22,014 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.80, for a total value of $9,021,337.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 68 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,866.40. This represents a 99.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 44,174 shares of company stock valued at $19,502,359 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Rothschild & Co Redburn assumed coverage on Ciena in a report on Friday, May 1st. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $416.00 target price for the company. UBS Group increased their target price on Ciena from $285.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Raymond James Financial increased their target price on Ciena from $320.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Barclays increased their target price on Ciena from $372.00 to $607.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Evercore set a $330.00 target price on Ciena in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $530.56.

Ciena Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of CIEN opened at $445.32 on Friday. Ciena Corporation has a 1 year low of $71.72 and a 1 year high of $637.51. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $521.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $363.71. The stock has a market cap of $63.04 billion, a PE ratio of 148.44 and a beta of 1.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 18.15% and a net margin of 7.87%.The firm had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.50 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 39.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 5.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena 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.