Securian Asset Management Inc. Trims Stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Securian Asset Management Inc. lowered its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 10,918 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 256 shares during the period. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $926,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at $57,861,000. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at $56,997,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at $40,416,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at $35,403,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at $40,919,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 5,648 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total value of $478,046.72. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 109,878 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,300,073.92. This trade represents a 4.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at $17,194,102.73. This trade represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764 in the last three months. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on CIEN shares. Northland Capmk upgraded Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup upped their price target on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Barclays set a $100.00 price target on Ciena and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Northland Securities upgraded Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $75.00 in a report on Wednesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.38.

Ciena Trading Up 2.5 %

NYSE:CIEN opened at $63.84 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.31. The stock has a market cap of $9.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 112.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $101.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55.

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). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.