Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Makes New $6.50 Million Investment in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 76,642 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,500,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CIEN. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 409.8% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 520 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at $59,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Ciena by 59.2% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $68,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on CIEN shares. B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $89.00 price target (down from $97.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Wednesday. Northland Capmk raised shares of Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays set a $100.00 price target on Ciena and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.38.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total transaction of $1,137,776.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. The trade was 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. 0.93% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ciena Stock Performance

Ciena stock opened at $63.84 on Friday. 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 12 month low of $43.30 and a 12 month high of $101.44. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $82.30 and its 200-day moving average is $73.31. The company has a market cap of $9.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

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.