First Trust Advisors LP Trims Stake in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

First Trust Advisors LP lessened its holdings in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 14.7% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 436,945 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 75,515 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Ciena were worth $169,635,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Bogart Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 635.7% during the 1st quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 103 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ciena by 71.0% in the 4th quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 106 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 85.5% during the 1st quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 141 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. Truvestments Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Ciena by 45.3% during the fourth quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 154 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ascentis Independent Advisors purchased a new position in Ciena during the first quarter valued at approximately $65,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CIEN. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $345.00 to $658.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $350.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Ciena from $425.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Ciena from $372.00 to $607.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $530.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,629 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.20, for a total transaction of $1,225,639.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 62,382 shares in the company, valued at $29,082,488.40. This represents a 4.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,952 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $562.05, for a total value of $1,659,171.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 272,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $153,163,683.45. This trade represents a 1.07% 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 21,627 shares of company stock valued at $10,974,985 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Down 2.6%

CIEN opened at $398.12 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $56.35 billion, a PE ratio of 132.71 and a beta of 1.27. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $484.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $408.29. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena Corporation has a 52 week low of $84.38 and a 52 week high of $637.51.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.18. Ciena had a return on equity of 18.15% and a net margin of 7.87%.The company had revenue of $1.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Ciena

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.