Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. Sells 854,828 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. cut its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 49.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 881,131 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 854,828 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $74,729,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of CIEN. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at $57,861,000. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth $56,997,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $40,416,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $35,403,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth $40,919,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Northland Securities upgraded Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Northland Capmk raised Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays set a $100.00 price objective on Ciena and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $89.00 price objective (down previously from $97.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.38.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. The trade was a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total value of $1,137,776.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,618,161.34. The trade was a 3.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Stock Down 6.2 %

CIEN stock opened at $62.30 on Friday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $8.88 billion, a PE ratio of 109.30, 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 stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $83.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $73.22.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted 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 company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.