WealthPlan Investment Management LLC Makes New $249,000 Investment in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

WealthPlan Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 1,065 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $249,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in Ciena during the first quarter worth $395,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in Ciena by 139.6% during the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 5,253 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $317,000 after buying an additional 3,061 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ciena by 1.4% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 222,054 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $13,419,000 after buying an additional 3,117 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth raised its position in Ciena by 14.6% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 5,762 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $348,000 after purchasing an additional 733 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. purchased a new stake in Ciena in the second quarter valued at $234,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on CIEN shares. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Ciena from $425.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Ciena from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 6th. Citigroup upped their price target on Ciena from $345.00 to $658.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Ciena from $380.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $398.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 22,014 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.80, for a total transaction of $9,021,337.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 68 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,866.40. This represents a 99.69% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 1,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.79, for a total value of $566,148.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 45,141 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,297,072.39. This represents a 2.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 40,022 shares of company stock valued at $16,534,709 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $523.56 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $458.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $318.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 2.81 and a quick ratio of 2.14. Ciena Corporation has a 1-year low of $70.77 and a 1-year high of $598.84. The company has a market cap of $74.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 333.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.24.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 4.47%.The company had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.64 EPS. Ciena’s revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 5.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena Company Profile

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena’s product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.