Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Buys Shares of 11,133 Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 11,133 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $501,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,617,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,868,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 16,828 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $757,000 after purchasing an additional 1,145 shares in the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 135,509 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $6,099,000 after purchasing an additional 5,017 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its stake in Ciena by 22.3% in the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 346,064 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $15,576,000 after purchasing an additional 63,000 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total value of $26,442.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 41,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,052,464.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 4,166 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.39, for a total transaction of $205,758.74. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 389,275 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,226,292.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 533 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $26,442.13. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 41,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,052,464.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 99,867 shares of company stock valued at $5,423,887. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $56.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 target price for the company. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $44.00 target price for the company. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.79.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $45.04 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.29 and a quick ratio of 3.12. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $52.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $48.25. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $39.94 and a 1 year high of $63.24. The stock has a market cap of $6.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.99.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 5.22% and a return on equity of 9.92%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.48 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.46 earnings per share 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.