Capital Investment Counsel Inc Takes $254,000 Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Capital Investment Counsel Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 3,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $254,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its stake 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 period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $273,427,000 after buying an additional 53,078 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position 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 valued at $148,348,000 after buying an additional 33,074 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Ciena by 0.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 955,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $58,850,000 after buying an additional 6,605 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter worth about $57,861,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. 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. Morgan Stanley cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.77.

Ciena Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $86.58 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $86.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $70.83. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $101.44. The company has a market cap of $12.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 151.90, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.88.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. This represents a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 5,648 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total transaction of $478,046.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 109,878 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,300,073.92. The trade was a 4.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

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.