Global Trust Asset Management LLC Buys New Position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN)

Global Trust Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 1,415 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $86,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,316,640 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,299,004,000 after acquiring an additional 139,941 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its position in Ciena by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,236,920 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $444,143,000 after purchasing an additional 17,447 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Ciena by 195.9% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,626,153 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $392,345,000 after purchasing an additional 3,062,883 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of Ciena by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,227,020 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,684,000 after purchasing an additional 49,996 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,419,947 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $205,301,000 after buying an additional 11,933 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.89, for a total value of $543,252.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 362,080 shares in the company, valued at $28,926,571.20. This represents a 1.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 18,888 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.88, for a total transaction of $1,131,013.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 89,258 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,344,769.04. This trade represents a 17.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 44,988 shares of company stock worth $2,988,095 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

Ciena stock opened at $73.46 on Wednesday. Ciena Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $44.89 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $72.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $76.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 3.40 and a quick ratio of 2.57. The company has a market cap of $10.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 102.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.12.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.08). Ciena had a return on equity of 5.08% and a net margin of 2.46%. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.27 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ciena Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Evercore ISI restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, June 6th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Ciena from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, June 7th. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price objective (up previously from $89.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, June 6th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Northland Capmk upgraded shares of Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $83.15.

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.