Teacher Retirement System of Texas Increases Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 73.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 36,968 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,612 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Ciena were worth $3,135,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 409.8% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 520 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at $59,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 59.2% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 59,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. The trade was a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 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 transaction of $1,137,776.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 425,749 shares in the company, valued at $35,618,161.34. This trade represents a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 66,742 shares of company stock worth $5,469,173. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on CIEN. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and set a $89.00 price target (down from $97.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective on shares of Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.38.

Ciena Stock Performance

Ciena stock opened at $69.23 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $80.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.98. The stock has a market cap of $9.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 121.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $101.44.

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.