LHM Inc. Has $5.95 Million Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

LHM Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 21.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 70,145 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 18,843 shares during the quarter. Ciena accounts for about 1.9% of LHM Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. LHM Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $5,949,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 409.8% during the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 520 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 59.2% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays raised their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities lifted their price target on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.77.

Ciena Trading Up 1.3 %

CIEN stock opened at $75.25 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $10.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 132.03, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $43.30 and a twelve month high of $101.44. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The business has a fifty day moving average of $85.31 and a 200-day moving average of $72.80.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The company’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. This represents a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total value of $519,588.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 398,549 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,453,129.09. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 63,442 shares of company stock worth $5,337,764 over the last 90 days. 0.93% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Ciena

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.