Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Invests $501,000 in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 11,133 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $501,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,084,694 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $712,903,000 after acquiring an additional 155,964 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,940,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $422,535,000 after purchasing an additional 371,041 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 4,652,822 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $219,893,000 after purchasing an additional 366,647 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,262,245 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $223,853,000 after purchasing an additional 31,333 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 11.7% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,052,505 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $212,838,000 after purchasing an additional 424,453 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Ciena in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Ciena from $56.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. StockNews.com raised Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on Ciena in a report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “sell” rating and a $44.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.79.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 8,332 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.86, for a total value of $473,757.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 415,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,635,223.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 8,332 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.86, for a total value of $473,757.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 415,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,635,223.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction of $3,833,044.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 424,006 shares in the company, valued at $22,942,964.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 99,867 shares of company stock worth $5,423,887. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN stock opened at $45.04 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $52.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $48.25. The stock has a market cap of $6.51 billion, a PE ratio of 29.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 4.29, a quick ratio of 3.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $39.94 and a 1 year high of $63.24.

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

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.