Summit Financial LLC Buys Shares of 6,808 Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Summit Financial LLC purchased a new position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 6,808 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $577,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 328.2% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 364 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its stake in Ciena by 409.8% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 520 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its position in Ciena by 394.6% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 554 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 442 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on CIEN. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $89.00 price objective (down previously from $97.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Northland Securities upgraded Ciena from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $60.00 to $75.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays set a $100.00 price objective on Ciena and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Northland Capmk upgraded Ciena from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.38.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN opened at $65.03 on Thursday. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $43.30 and a twelve month high of $101.44. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market cap of $9.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 114.09, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $77.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $74.23.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at $5,042,121.12. This represents a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,200 shares of company stock worth $4,921,513 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

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.