Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS Decreases Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS trimmed its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 78.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 68,769 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 251,446 shares during the period. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS’s holdings in Ciena were worth $5,832,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Creative Planning grew its position in Ciena by 65.0% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 14,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $894,000 after acquiring an additional 5,717 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Ciena by 241.5% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $88,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in Ciena by 399.6% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,378 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $146,000 after acquiring an additional 1,902 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its position in Ciena by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $380,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $664,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on CIEN. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.77.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. The trade was a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.86, for a total value of $577,048.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 412,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,974,964.14. The trade was a 1.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,292 shares of company stock worth $4,786,620 in the last quarter. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ciena Trading Down 0.3 %

CIEN opened at $89.53 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $12.72 billion, a PE ratio of 157.06, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The business has a 50 day moving average of $86.44 and a 200-day moving average of $70.61. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $43.30 and a 52 week high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Ciena

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.