Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 2,991 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $254,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in Ciena by 925.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares during the period. Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in Ciena by 59.2% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the period. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at about $97,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Up 1.9 %

CIEN stock opened at $79.49 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $85.85 and its 200 day moving average is $72.19. The stock has a market cap of $11.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 139.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total value of $235,050.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,435,197.48. This represents a 5.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 5,648 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total transaction of $478,046.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 109,878 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,300,073.92. The trade was a 4.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 56,642 shares of company stock worth $4,818,176. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.77.

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.