Fruth Investment Management Invests $212,000 in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Fruth Investment Management acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 2,500 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in Ciena during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $202,000. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 640.7% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 64,466 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,106,000 after purchasing an additional 55,763 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its position in shares of Ciena by 13.7% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 8,799 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $424,000 after purchasing an additional 1,062 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 10.4% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 29,614 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,427,000 after buying an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the 2nd quarter worth $221,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. The trade was a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 57,581 shares of company stock worth $4,875,548 in the last 90 days. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Stock Up 5.3 %

NYSE:CIEN opened at $92.15 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The firm has a market cap of $13.10 billion, a PE ratio of 161.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a 50-day moving average of $83.16 and a 200 day moving average of $68.01. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.77.

Ciena Company 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.