Impax Asset Management Group plc Cuts Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Impax Asset Management Group plc lessened its holdings in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 38.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 130,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 80,650 shares during the quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc owned about 0.09% of Ciena worth $11,060,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in Ciena by 65.0% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 14,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $894,000 after buying an additional 5,717 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 241.5% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $88,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 399.6% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,378 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $146,000 after acquiring an additional 1,902 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 5.4% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $380,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the period. Finally, NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC grew its stake in Ciena by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 11,999 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $739,000 after purchasing an additional 950 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.77.

Ciena Trading Down 4.4 %

NYSE:CIEN opened at $80.38 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.46 billion, a PE ratio of 141.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $101.44. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $86.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $71.67. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.16, for a total transaction of $31,556.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,435,601.52. This trade represents a 0.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total transaction of $235,050.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,607 shares in the company, valued at $4,435,197.48. This represents a 5.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176. 0.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.