Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Acquires 4,534 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its holdings in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 13.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 38,732 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,534 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings in Ciena were worth $3,285,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $148,348,000 after acquiring an additional 33,074 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter worth approximately $245,000. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,459 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $887,000 after buying an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter worth approximately $421,000. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,334,290,000 after buying an additional 108,407 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CIEN. B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $89.00 target price (down previously from $97.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.38.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 5,648 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total value of $478,046.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 109,878 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,300,073.92. This represents a 4.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $63.84 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $43.30 and a 12 month high of $101.44. The stock has a market cap of $9.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 112.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $73.31.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its 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 period in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena 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.