Brighton Jones LLC Makes New Investment in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 5,445 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $443,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in CIEN. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 40.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,960 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $179,000 after acquiring an additional 851 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter valued at $219,000. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 50.0% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 534 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 20.8% during the first quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 44,641 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,698,000 after acquiring an additional 7,673 shares during the period. Finally, Calamos Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 15.5% during the first quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC now owns 19,156 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,158,000 after acquiring an additional 2,566 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,863 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.14, for a total value of $262,943.82. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 43,531 shares in the company, valued at $6,143,965.34. This represents a 4.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.36, for a total value of $59,276.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 40,653 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,884,992.08. This trade represents a 0.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 45,374 shares of company stock valued at $5,936,444 over the last ninety days. 0.93% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the topic of several research reports. Rosenblatt Securities raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $127.50 to $175.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Ciena from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. B. Riley reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $113.00 price objective (up previously from $90.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, September 5th. Argus upped their price objective on Ciena from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Ciena from $120.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $137.53.

Ciena Stock Up 3.4%

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $189.33 on Thursday. Ciena Corporation has a 1 year low of $49.21 and a 1 year high of $193.12. The business has a 50-day moving average of $139.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $100.19. The company has a market capitalization of $26.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 195.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 3.28 and a quick ratio of 2.52.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Ciena had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 3.10%.The company had revenue of $844.44 million during the quarter. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS 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.