DDD Partners LLC Sells 145,651 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

DDD Partners LLC cut its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 54.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 123,993 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 145,651 shares during the period. DDD Partners LLC owned approximately 0.09% of Ciena worth $10,516,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 390,148 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $33,088,000 after buying an additional 2,594 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp acquired a new position in Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at about $207,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in Ciena by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 40,100 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $3,401,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,129,000. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its stake in Ciena by 21.8% during the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 799,546 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $67,810,000 after purchasing an additional 143,350 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Northland Securities boosted their target price on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ciena from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $78.77.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 5,648 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total transaction of $478,046.72. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 109,878 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,300,073.92. The trade was a 4.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,642 shares of company stock valued at $4,818,176 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company's stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock traded down $0.47 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $86.58. 2,628,036 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,449,880. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $43.30 and a 12 month high of $101.44. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $86.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $70.72. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $12.35 billion, a PE ratio of 151.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.88.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. The company's revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast 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.