Lisanti Capital Growth LLC Invests $468,000 in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Lisanti Capital Growth LLC acquired a new position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 5,520 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $468,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Ciena by 1.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $148,348,000 after acquiring an additional 33,074 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at $245,000. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at $421,000. Atria Investments Inc acquired a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter valued at $1,988,000. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 0.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on CIEN. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Northland Securities upped their target price on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.62.

Ciena Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $68.75 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $84.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $72.78. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $101.44. The firm has a market cap of $9.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.62, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at $4,256,582.77. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total value of $519,588.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 398,549 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,453,129.09. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

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.