2,400 Shares in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Purchased by Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc.

Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,400 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,334,290,000 after buying an additional 108,407 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Ciena by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $273,427,000 after buying an additional 53,078 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $148,348,000 after buying an additional 33,074 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 959,831 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $81,403,000 after buying an additional 4,315 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter worth about $57,861,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total transaction of $519,588.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 398,549 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,453,129.09. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 63,442 shares of company stock valued at $5,337,764. Insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. 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. Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.62.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $68.75 on Monday. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $43.30 and a one year 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. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $84.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $73.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91.

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