EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases 627 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 18,471 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 627 shares during the quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $1,567,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in Ciena by 925.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted 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 valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 418 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Ciena by 152.8% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the period. Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Ciena by 59.2% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 267 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $66.41 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 116.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $43.30 and a 52 week high of $101.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $83.11 and a 200-day moving average of $73.22.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly 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). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $89.00 target price (down previously from $97.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reduced their target price on Ciena from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total value of $235,050.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,435,197.48. This trade represents a 5.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total value of $519,588.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 398,549 shares in the company, valued at $30,453,129.09. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764. 0.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.