Washington Capital Management Inc. Has $1.38 Million Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Washington Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 16.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 16,220 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,125 shares during the quarter. Ciena accounts for about 1.1% of Washington Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position. Washington Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $1,376,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $273,427,000 after buying an additional 53,078 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $148,348,000 after acquiring an additional 33,074 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 955,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $58,850,000 after acquiring an additional 6,605 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at $57,861,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.77.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were 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 directly owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. The trade was a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,781 shares of company stock valued at $4,298,500 in the last 90 days. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $81.38 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $11.57 billion, a PE ratio of 142.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $81.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $66.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.59 EPS for the current year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.