Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Acquires New Position in Ciena Corporation $CIEN

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 49,400 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,018,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the first quarter worth $70,065,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 375.4% during the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,235,696 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $100,499,000 after buying an additional 975,792 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP bought a new position in Ciena in the 1st quarter worth $49,221,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in 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 worth $64,028,000 after buying an additional 747,576 shares during the period. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its stake in 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 worth $220,286,000 after buying an additional 702,909 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on CIEN shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. UBS Group increased their target price on Ciena from $78.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Barclays boosted their price target on Ciena from $102.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ciena in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, BNP Paribas set a $185.00 price objective on shares of Ciena and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $153.20.

Ciena Stock Up 9.6%

Shares of CIEN opened at $195.44 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 3.28 and a quick ratio of 2.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 201.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.17. Ciena Corporation has a 1 year low of $49.21 and a 1 year high of $214.17. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $170.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $116.59.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 8,461 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.12, for a total value of $1,185,555.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 54,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,653,914.88. This trade represents a 13.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,863 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.14, for a total value of $262,943.82. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 43,531 shares in the company, valued at $6,143,965.34. The trade was a 4.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 51,935 shares of company stock valued at $8,029,442. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

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.