AXQ Capital LP Takes $444,000 Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

AXQ Capital LP acquired a new position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 5,239 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $444,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CIEN. Greenleaf Trust boosted its holdings in Ciena by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 4,978 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $422,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in Ciena by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,459 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $887,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Ciena by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its position in Ciena by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 31,897 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,705,000 after buying an additional 220 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 4,469 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $379,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.16, for a total value of $31,556.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,435,601.52. The trade was a 0.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.18, for a total transaction of $443,224.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 391,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,534,199.82. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,742 shares of company stock worth $5,469,173 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CIEN shares. Northland Securities raised shares of Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Northland Capmk upgraded shares of Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays set a $100.00 price target on Ciena and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.38.

Ciena Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $65.47 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $80.57 and its 200-day moving average is $73.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 3.55. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $43.30 and a 52 week high of $101.44. The company has a market capitalization of $9.31 billion, a PE ratio of 114.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

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.