KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Trims Position in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS cut its holdings in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 29,200 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS’s holdings in Ciena were worth $2,375,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Joule Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 2.9% during the second quarter. Joule Financial LLC now owns 10,690 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $869,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 375.4% during the second quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,235,696 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $100,499,000 after buying an additional 975,792 shares during the period. Institute for Wealth Management LLC. purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the second quarter valued at approximately $445,000. Poinciana Advisors Group LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the second quarter worth $275,000. Finally, Campbell Newman Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Ciena by 7.1% in the second quarter. Campbell Newman Asset Management Inc. now owns 34,442 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,801,000 after purchasing an additional 2,289 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley raised Ciena from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $100.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Ciena from $105.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Northland Securities set a $100.00 price target on Ciena in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Bank of America upped their price target on Ciena from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $130.23.

Ciena Trading Down 4.6%

NYSE CIEN opened at $156.04 on Friday. Ciena Corporation has a 12 month low of $49.21 and a 12 month high of $165.24. The stock has a market cap of $22.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 160.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.15. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $118.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $89.56. The company has a current ratio of 3.28, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter. Ciena had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 3.10%.The firm had revenue of $844.44 million for the quarter. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.23, for a total transaction of $559,164.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 325,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,770,552.11. This represents a 2.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total value of $1,185,555.32. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 54,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,653,914.88. The trade was a 13.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 45,724 shares of company stock valued at $5,336,431. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

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.