Teacher Retirement System of Texas Grows Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 73.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 36,968 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 15,612 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Ciena were worth $3,135,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its position in shares of Ciena by 409.8% during the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 520 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the period. Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at $59,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 59.2% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 267 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the director now owns 59,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. This trade represents a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,742 shares of company stock worth $5,469,173 over the last three months. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays set a $100.00 price target on shares of Ciena and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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 report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.38.

Ciena Trading Down 0.4 %

CIEN opened at $69.23 on Wednesday. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $80.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $73.98. The company has a market capitalization of $9.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 121.46, a PEG 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.

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.