Nwam LLC Buys New Shares in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Nwam LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 2,871 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $243,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Amalgamated Bank raised its position in shares of Ciena by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 68,806 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,835,000 after buying an additional 273 shares during the last quarter. Coyle Financial Counsel LLC bought a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,846,000. Capital Investment Counsel Inc acquired a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $254,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 24.6% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 39,062 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,313,000 after acquiring an additional 7,700 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its position in shares of Ciena by 159.8% during the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 218,980 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $18,572,000 after purchasing an additional 134,694 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $79.49 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $85.85 and a 200-day moving average of $72.35. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $43.30 and a twelve month high of $101.44. The firm has a market cap of $11.33 billion, a PE ratio of 139.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 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 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 425,749 shares in the company, valued at $35,618,161.34. This represents a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total transaction of $235,050.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,435,197.48. The trade was a 5.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on CIEN shares. Citigroup raised their target price on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Northland Securities increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to 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.