First Eagle Investment Management LLC Purchases New Position in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

First Eagle Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 118,349 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $9,625,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in CIEN. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the first quarter valued at about $70,065,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Ciena by 375.4% during the second quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,235,696 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $100,499,000 after purchasing an additional 975,792 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at about $49,221,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 1,883.5% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 787,266 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $64,028,000 after purchasing an additional 747,576 shares during the period. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Ciena by 35.0% in the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,708,540 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $220,286,000 after purchasing an additional 702,909 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. BNP Paribas set a $185.00 target price on shares of Ciena and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ciena from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $100.00 to $140.00 in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $102.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $127.50 to $175.00 in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $137.53.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.45, for a total value of $1,295,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 268,470 shares in the company, valued at $51,130,111.50. The trade was a 2.47% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,863 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.14, for a total transaction of $262,943.82. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 43,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,143,965.34. The trade was a 4.10% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 52,174 shares of company stock valued at $7,231,504. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Down 1.1%

CIEN stock opened at $199.15 on Friday. Ciena Corporation has a 1-year low of $49.21 and a 1-year high of $203.40. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $153.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $106.38. The company has a current ratio of 3.28, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.09 billion, a PE ratio of 205.31, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.17.

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

Ciena 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.