HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 4,719 Shares of Ciena Corporation $CIEN

HighTower Advisors LLC decreased its position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 21.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 17,376 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 4,719 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $4,064,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter worth about $2,747,810,000. Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter worth about $292,310,000. Atreides Management LP bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the second quarter worth about $102,705,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 23.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,462,840 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $941,451,000 after buying an additional 1,219,787 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 2,174.2% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,143,855 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $166,625,000 after buying an additional 1,093,557 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.05, for a total transaction of $1,659,171.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 272,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $153,163,683.45. This represents a 1.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through 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 firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.65, for a total transaction of $684,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 43,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,074,931.65. This trade represents a 2.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 44,174 shares of company stock valued at $18,878,661 in the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ciena Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $580.59 on Friday. Ciena Corporation has a twelve month low of $70.77 and a twelve month high of $605.61. The company has a quick ratio of 2.14, a current ratio of 2.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $500.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $341.74. The firm has a market cap of $82.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 369.80, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on CIEN shares. B. Riley Financial raised their price objective on Ciena from $222.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Ciena from $280.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Weiss Ratings raised Ciena from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Ciena from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Ciena from $380.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $406.61.

Ciena 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.