Ciena Corporation $CIEN Shares Sold by State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lowered its position in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 50,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 305 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Ciena were worth $4,099,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CIEN. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 40.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,960 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $179,000 after acquiring an additional 851 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $219,000. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 50.0% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 534 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Peregrine Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Ciena by 7.3% in the first quarter. Peregrine Capital Management LLC now owns 200,369 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,108,000 after purchasing an additional 13,672 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its position in shares of Ciena by 20.8% in the first quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 44,641 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,698,000 after purchasing an additional 7,673 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CIEN shares. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on Ciena from $90.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Ciena from $120.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Northland Securities set a $100.00 price target on Ciena in a research report on Monday, June 30th. B. Riley restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $113.00 price target (up from $90.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Ciena from $105.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $137.53.

Ciena Stock Up 2.0%

NYSE:CIEN opened at $182.56 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 3.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $135.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $98.40. Ciena Corporation has a 52 week low of $49.21 and a 52 week high of $186.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 188.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.15.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter. Ciena had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 3.10%.The company had revenue of $844.44 million for the quarter. Research analysts anticipate that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.36, for a total value of $59,276.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 40,653 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,884,992.08. This trade represents a 0.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.25, for a total value of $1,157,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 275,270 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,864,717.50. The trade was a 2.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 45,374 shares of company stock valued at $5,936,444 in the last three months. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by 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.