Handelsbanken Fonder AB Purchases 7,700 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 24.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 39,062 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,700 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Ciena were worth $3,313,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Greenleaf Trust raised its stake in Ciena by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 4,978 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $422,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 3.8% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its position in shares of Ciena by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 4,469 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $379,000 after buying an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 2.4% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after buying an additional 244 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 59.2% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 267 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $84.15 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 147.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $86.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $71.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $101.44.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total transaction of $235,050.48. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,435,197.48. This trade represents a 5.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,197 shares in the company, valued at $4,435,601.52. This trade represents a 0.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 56,642 shares of company stock valued at $4,818,176. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on CIEN shares. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.