Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Sold by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans cut its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,829,410 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 176,163 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Ciena were worth $136,321,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Ciena by 1,944.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $101,986,000 after buying an additional 1,961,513 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Ciena by 7,767.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $94,742,000 after acquiring an additional 1,941,419 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter worth about $73,476,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the first quarter valued at about $48,214,000. Finally, Rokos Capital Management LLP grew its position in shares of Ciena by 118.7% in the first quarter. Rokos Capital Management LLP now owns 1,524,332 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $75,378,000 after purchasing an additional 827,352 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. B. Riley reduced their target price on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.15.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at $10,368,269.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at $4,635,840. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total transaction of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,368,269.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,712 shares of company stock valued at $498,637 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $58.73 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $8.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.47, a PEG ratio of 6.86 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50 day moving average of $52.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $49.87. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $39.94 and a 52 week high of $63.24. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 EPS for the current year.

Ciena 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.