AQR Capital Management LLC Buys 718,551 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 428.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 886,354 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 718,551 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned about 0.62% of Ciena worth $42,705,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at about $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the first quarter worth approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC bought a new stake in Ciena in the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its stake 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 period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $61.81 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.81 and a 200 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 company has a market capitalization of $8.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on CIEN shares. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Citigroup raised shares of Ciena from a "sell" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Raymond James cut shares of Ciena from a "strong-buy" rating to an "outperform" rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. B. Riley decreased their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $61.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total value of $170,835.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,368,269.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total transaction of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,368,269.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at $4,635,840. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 9,712 shares of company stock worth $498,637. Insiders own 0.83% of the company's stock.

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.

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