Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Trims Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System decreased its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 6.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,684 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 538 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Ciena were worth $652,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CIEN. FMR LLC raised its position in Ciena by 0.5% in 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 raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,427,000 after buying an additional 53,078 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 33,074 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 959,831 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $81,403,000 after buying an additional 4,315 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $57,861,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on CIEN. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Northland Capmk upgraded shares of Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $89.00 price target (down from $97.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Barclays set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Ciena and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.38.

Ciena Trading Up 6.2 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $69.63 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $9.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 122.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $43.30 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $80.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.16, for a total transaction of $31,556.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,435,601.52. This trade represents a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 three months, insiders sold 66,742 shares of company stock worth $5,469,173. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.