35,841 Shares in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Bought by Maverick Capital Ltd.

Maverick Capital Ltd. acquired a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 35,841 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,727,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd boosted its position 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 buying an additional 937 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Trading Down 1.0 %

Ciena stock traded down $0.65 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $61.81. 1,887,640 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,786,381. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $53.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $50.02. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $39.94 and a 12-month high of $63.24. The firm has a market cap of $8.93 billion, a PE ratio of 59.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. Ciena's revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. Research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total value of $130,962.48. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 9,712 shares of company stock valued at $498,637 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Raymond James downgraded Ciena from a "strong-buy" rating to an "outperform" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $59.00 to $54.00 in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Citigroup raised Ciena from a "sell" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Bank of America reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Northland Securities reissued a "market perform" rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $61.00.

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.