SWS Partners Buys 237 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

SWS Partners grew its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 37,591 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 237 shares during the quarter. SWS Partners’ holdings in Ciena were worth $3,188,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its stake in Ciena by 409.8% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 520 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 59.2% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities lifted their price target on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.77.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $74.72 on Tuesday. 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.65. The stock has a market cap of $10.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 131.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $43.30 and a twelve month high of $101.44.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at $5,042,121.12. The trade was a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total value of $1,137,776.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. This trade represents a 3.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 56,642 shares of company stock valued at $4,818,176. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.