LHM Inc. Sells 18,843 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

LHM Inc. reduced its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 21.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 70,145 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 18,843 shares during the quarter. Ciena accounts for about 1.9% of LHM Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. LHM Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $5,949,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the third quarter worth about $57,861,000. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $56,997,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. acquired a new position in Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,416,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new position in Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $35,403,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,919,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on CIEN shares. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities raised their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.77.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at $5,042,121.12. The trade was a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764 in the last 90 days. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $75.25 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $85.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $72.80. The company has a market cap of $10.73 billion, a PE ratio of 132.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $43.30 and a fifty-two week high of $101.44. 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 (NYSE:CIEN) last released 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 firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.