Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Increases Position in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 275.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 607,391 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 445,769 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s holdings in Ciena were worth $142,051,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 23.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,462,840 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $941,451,000 after buying an additional 1,219,787 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Ciena by 10.4% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,495,795 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $284,313,000 after purchasing an additional 329,821 shares during the period. Lone Pine Capital LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the third quarter valued at $292,310,000. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in Ciena by 48.5% during the third quarter. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,983,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $288,864,000 after purchasing an additional 648,000 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its position in Ciena by 7.6% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 1,836,981 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $267,593,000 after purchasing an additional 130,507 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CIEN. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $279.00 to $372.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $260.00 to $355.00 in a research report on Friday, March 6th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $230.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, December 21st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $280.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $327.12.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 2,993 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.65, for a total value of $741,216.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 304,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $75,506,503.80. This represents a 0.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 22,014 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.80, for a total transaction of $9,021,337.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 68 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,866.40. This trade represents a 99.69% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 66,150 shares of company stock worth $22,091,206. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $496.44 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $356.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $257.30. The company has a market cap of $70.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 316.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.01. Ciena Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $56.75 and a fifty-two week high of $513.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.14 and a current ratio of 2.81.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 4.47% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The company’s revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.64 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena Company Profile

Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services. The company develops high-capacity optical transport systems and packet-optical platforms that enable service providers, cloud operators and large enterprises to build, manage and scale their networks. Ciena’s product portfolio includes coherent optical solutions, packet networking platforms and a suite of network automation software designed to optimize bandwidth, reduce latency and simplify network operations.

In addition to hardware offerings, Ciena provides professional services and support, including network design, implementation and ongoing maintenance.