Retirement Systems of Alabama Reduces Stock Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Retirement Systems of Alabama decreased its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 21.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 317,515 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 85,975 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned about 0.22% of Ciena worth $26,928,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $57,861,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at $40,416,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP bought a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at $35,403,000. LMR Partners LLP bought a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at $17,236,000. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC raised its position in Ciena by 119.6% during the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 239,389 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $14,744,000 after purchasing an additional 130,399 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CIEN. BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their price target on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.77.

Ciena Stock Up 5.3 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $92.15 on Thursday. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $101.44. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $83.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $68.01. 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 company has a market cap of $13.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 161.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.88.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total value of $1,137,776.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 425,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. The trade was a 3.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 57,581 shares of company stock worth $4,875,548. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.