Savant Capital LLC Sells 385 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Savant Capital LLC lessened its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,852 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 385 shares during the quarter. Savant Capital LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $2,956,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc grew 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 in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at $59,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Ciena by 152.8% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in Ciena by 241.5% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $88,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on CIEN shares. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI cut Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their target price on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.77.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN opened at $87.44 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $84.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $69.26. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $43.30 and a 1 year high of $101.44. The company has a market capitalization of $12.43 billion, a PE ratio of 153.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.88.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value of $1,436,843.52. Following the transaction, the director now owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. This trade represents a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.86, for a total transaction of $577,048.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 412,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,974,964.14. This represents a 1.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 57,581 shares of company stock valued at $4,875,548 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.83% 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.