17,037 Shares in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Bought by LHM Inc.

LHM Inc. acquired a new position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 17,037 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $767,000. Ciena comprises 0.7% of LHM Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 63.9% in the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 849 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 331 shares in the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in Ciena in the first quarter valued at $59,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp purchased a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter valued at $101,000. State of Wyoming raised its position in Ciena by 35.4% in the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 2,450 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares during the period. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co raised its position in Ciena by 74.5% in the third quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 2,999 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $142,000 after purchasing an additional 1,280 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on CIEN. Citigroup started coverage on Ciena in a research note on Friday. They set a “sell” rating and a $44.00 price objective for the company. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Ciena from $56.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.79.

Ciena Trading Down 3.2 %

CIEN traded down $1.50 during trading on Friday, reaching $45.60. 2,121,372 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,529,785. The company has a quick ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 4.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.59 billion, a PE ratio of 29.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.99. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $52.92 and its 200 day moving average is $48.28. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $39.94 and a 12 month high of $63.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.18. Ciena had a net margin of 5.22% and a return on equity of 9.92%. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.48 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 70,838 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.11, for a total transaction of $3,833,044.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 424,006 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,942,964.66. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 70,838 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.11, for a total value of $3,833,044.18. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 424,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,942,964.66. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.39, for a total transaction of $205,758.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 389,275 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,226,292.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 107,533 shares of company stock worth $5,808,540. Insiders own 0.83% 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.