Ciena Corporation $CIEN Shares Acquired by Castle Hook Partners LP

Castle Hook Partners LP grew its stake in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 556.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,479 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,731 shares during the quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP’s holdings in Ciena were worth $2,685,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Ciena during the first quarter worth about $395,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in Ciena by 139.6% during the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 5,253 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $317,000 after acquiring an additional 3,061 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 1.4% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 222,054 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $13,419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,117 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth raised its stake in Ciena by 14.6% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 5,762 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $348,000 after acquiring an additional 733 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. acquired a new stake in Ciena during the second quarter worth about $234,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $435.91 on Thursday. Ciena Corporation has a 52 week low of $73.23 and a 52 week high of $637.51. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market cap of $61.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 145.30 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $521.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $370.05.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.18. Ciena had a net margin of 7.87% and a return on equity of 18.15%. The firm had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.42 EPS. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was up 39.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Ciena Corporation will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $350.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $615.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Northland Securities set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, June 5th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $425.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $470.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $530.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 22,014 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $409.80, for a total value of $9,021,337.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 68 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,866.40. This represents a 99.69% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $405.00, for a total transaction of $2,025,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 46,341 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,768,105. This trade represents a 9.74% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 45,374 shares of company stock worth $20,349,470. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Ciena 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.