North Growth Management Ltd. Sells 73,000 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

North Growth Management Ltd. reduced its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 13.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 458,000 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 73,000 shares during the period. Ciena accounts for about 7.4% of North Growth Management Ltd.'s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. North Growth Management Ltd. owned 0.32% of Ciena worth $38,874,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew 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 worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased 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 buying an additional 1,007 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on 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 owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 57,581 shares of company stock worth $4,875,548. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN traded up $1.14 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $88.63. The stock had a trading volume of 1,843,514 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,540,858. 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $85.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $69.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 155.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.88. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $43.30 and a 52 week high of $101.44.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last posted 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 return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CIEN. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI lowered shares of Ciena from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Ciena from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley lowered Ciena from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $78.77.

Ciena Company 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.