Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC Sells 311 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 10,992 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 311 shares during the quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $495,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,084,694 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $712,903,000 after purchasing an additional 155,964 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 4.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,940,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $422,535,000 after purchasing an additional 371,041 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 8.6% in the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 4,652,822 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $219,893,000 after purchasing an additional 366,647 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.7% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,262,245 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $223,853,000 after purchasing an additional 31,333 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 11.7% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,052,505 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $212,838,000 after purchasing an additional 424,453 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 3,156 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.74, for a total value of $144,355.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,171 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,340,561.54. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.80, for a total transaction of $186,636.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 385,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,252,883.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 3,156 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.74, for a total transaction of $144,355.44. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,171 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,340,561.54. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 107,189 shares of company stock valued at $5,754,880 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $56.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. BNP Paribas began coverage on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.79.

Ciena Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Ciena stock traded down $0.19 during trading on Friday, reaching $43.58. 617,321 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,010,628. 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’s fifty day moving average is $52.06 and its 200 day moving average is $48.19. The firm has a market cap of $6.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.99. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $39.94 and a 1 year high of $63.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 5.22% and a return on equity of 9.92%. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.48 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.