American International Group Inc. Sells 7,764 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

American International Group Inc. cut its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 3.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 191,941 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 7,764 shares during the quarter. American International Group Inc. owned 0.13% of Ciena worth $9,491,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda bought a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Covestor Ltd grew its stake in Ciena by 339.5% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $61,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,288 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.00, for a total transaction of $63,112.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,444,267. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,288 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.00, for a total value of $63,112.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,444,267. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 15,832 shares of company stock worth $769,636 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on CIEN shares. BNP Paribas started coverage on Ciena in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price objective for the company. Raymond James cut Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $54.00 in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Morgan Stanley raised Ciena from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $53.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Barclays dropped their price target on Ciena from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on Ciena from $52.50 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.25.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN traded up $0.75 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $50.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 261,818 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,779,526. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $39.94 and a one year high of $63.24. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $48.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.02. The company has a quick ratio of 2.76, a current ratio of 3.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.35 and a beta of 0.95.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.12. Ciena had a return on equity of 7.16% and a net margin of 3.71%. The company had revenue of $910.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $895.80 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.59 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 earnings per share 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.